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jltsttc of ITcw 


THE 


PUBLIC SERVICE 

OF THE 

State of New York 

DURING THE ADMINISTRATION OF 


Alonzo B. Cornell, 

GOVERNOR. 

Historical , Descriptive and Biographical Sketches 

BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 


Illustrated with iTicnis and portraits. 

IN THREE VOLUMES. 

Hon. PAUL A. CHADBOURNE, D.D., LL.D. 

it 

(£tUtor-in-(Chief. 

WALTER BURRITT MOORE, A.M. 

\ 

Associate Editor. 


VOLUME I. 



BOSTON: 

JAMES R. OSGOOD AND CO M P A N Y. 

MDCCCLXXX II. 














Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-two, 

By JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY, 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 


transfer 
17 is 1 4 


WEED, PARSONS AND COMPANY, 
PRINTERS AND ELECTROTYPERS , 
ALBANY, NEW YORK. 






PREFACE. 


HE American system of government is not readily understood by foreign 

nations, and its beauty and perfection of plan are seldom appreciated by our 

own people. While we sometimes justly complain of defects in the adminis¬ 
tration of government, we too often undervalue the wisdom of the American system 
as a whole. Ours is a Nation composed of nations, all members of the great 
Federal Union, a Union that secures to each of its members an independent system 
of internal government, as free from the interference of other States as though it 
had no political connection with them, at the same time giving to it the protecting 
power of the whole Nation whenever its rights or welfare are endangered by internal 
dissensions or foreign invasion. When dealing with its own affairs, each State has 
sovereign power, having its own Constitution, and its own Executive, Legislative and 
Judicial departments of government. As a member of the Union, it recognizes the 

Federal Constitution as the supreme law of the land, an instrument of power for 

each State, as through it are secured the protection and aid of the Federal Govern¬ 
ment, which to the world without, represents all the power and interests of the 
several States as a single Nation. 

Whatever acquaints our people more fully with the grandeur and beneficence 
of our General Government, and the perfection of our State Governments in 
distinction from the National Government, cannot fail to deepen their love for 
the Union, and quicken their interest in all that pertains to the government of 
their respective States. It too often happens that in the complex machinery of 
government in each State, institutions and customs—the growth of generations — 
move on from year to year, doing their appointed work, while the citizen knows 
little more of them than that they call him to the polls and subject him to the 
visits of the tax-collector. 

It is a worthy work to set before the citizens of any State, in graphic form, 
all the machinery of their State Government for a single administration, connecting 
it with the past, that they may see what the wisdom of the fathers has devised for 
the welfare of the State, and be better able wisely to provide for the permanence 




IV 


PREFACE. 


of all that is good, and to institute changes in those customs or institutions that 
are not fitted for the times. Progress can be made in political affairs, only by those 

who understand the present state of such affairs and the conditions and agencies 

through which the present results have been secured. 

It is to give this knowledge, useful to every citizen of a State, that the publica¬ 
tion of the present work, “The Public Service of the State of New York,” 
has been undertaken. The Constitutions and laws of the older States of the Union 
have been of slow growth. The principles of free government have made progress 

in every great struggle, and the history of each one of these States is instructive 

and encouraging to every lover of free institutions. The new States have come 
at once into the rich inheritance of the experience, the laws and institutions of 
the States which have passed through the trials of the colonial and revolutionary 
periods, and have gathered the experience of a century under independent govern¬ 
ments. No political student can overvalue the contributions which these older 
States have made to the progress and stability of free government in the history 
of their laws and contests of departments and by their changes of Constitutions, 
all marking points of progress from oppressive and tyrannical law to that law that 
restrains the individual simply to secure safety and the greatest good of the whole. 
The history of no State in the Union is richer in political suggestions and prece¬ 
dents than that of New York, and no one more fully presents the conditions and 
struggles by which a few colonists have become a great nation. The object of this 
book is to trace the growth of the State as a political organization and the origin 
and development of those institutions that mark the progress of the State in the 
best results of modern civilization. By thus presenting each great interest in con¬ 
nection with the history of its growth, we not only present the Government of 
the State as now organized for its daily work, but give a view of the Public Service 
of this “ Empire State ” as it varies from year to year. 

Historical sketches of all the departments of the State Government are given 
by men perfectly conversant with those departments. With these sketches are 
given brief biographies of the men who constitute the present administration. A 
history has also been given of the public institutions of the State. In fine, the 
work is intended to be a complete photograph of the State Government as it is 
to-day organized, so that all its machinery may be seen in the relation of the 
several parts to each other, as it has never been shown in any publication before 
this time. 

The preparation of the several articles has been intrusted to the best men 
who could be secured for the work — to those who have control of the departments 
or to such writers as the heads of departments have named as best acquainted with 
their work. These articles thus prepared have been arranged and combined by the 


PREFACE. 


v 


Editor-in-chief. It has been a matter of regret to him that the great amount of 
material furnished required the condensation of so many articles that had been 
prepared with great care. The personal sketches also have, for obvious reasons, been 
confined mainly to the mere statement of facts, as given in the data furnished. 

The grouping of this material has been a matter of careful consideration, 
though the great range of subjects makes it impossible to secure an order that is 
in all cases satisfactory. The three great departments of the State Government 
form natural divisions of the work into volumes, each department giving character to 
the volume in which it appears. The subjects of a more general nature have 
allowed of such a distribution of material as to secure equality in the size of the 
volumes. 

The first volume begins with a condensed history of the State, and includes 
those subjects that pertain to the Executive Departments of the public service. 

The second volume treats mainly of the growth and modification of the Legis¬ 
lative Department of the Government, and contains sketches and portraits of members 
of Assembly and Senate during the present administration. 

The third volume is devoted to the Judiciary of the State, to the interests of 
Education, and to the relation of the State to the Federal Government. 

The gathering of the information here embodied, and the preparation of the 
leading articles involved an amount of labor for which the payment made to writers 
has been no adequate compensation. Indeed, much of the material has been freely 
furnished by those interested in the progress of our labors. The efficient aid of the 
Governor and heads of the Executive Departments, and the Chancellor of the Board 
of Regents, has been freely given from the beginning. And that portion of the work 
prepared by the Secretary of the Board of Regents or under his direction, speaks for 
itself of the great labor and interest bestowed upon this undertaking by those who 
have charge of the educational interests of the State. In the names of Hall, Pratt, 
Browne, Seymour and other authors who appear as writers upon their specialties, 
the public will recognize men who are eminently qualified to treat fairly and fully 
the subjects they have elaborated. 

The editors gratefully acknowledge the aid they have received, not only from 
the writers whose names appear as guarantees of the accuracy of the articles they 
have prepared, but from a great number whose names do not appear in the work 
and cannot here be given. 

The Editor-in-chief desires especially to acknowledge the labors of his associate, 
Mr. Walter B. Moore, who in addition to the entire business management of the 
undertaking, has contributed largely to whatever of excellence there may be in its 
results by his labors as editor, his great industry in collecting material, and his 
unwearied efforts in the minutest details that affected either the literary character 


VI 


PREFACE. 


or the mechanical execution of the work. Credit for the conception of the plan, 
and the responsibility for much of the work justly belong to him. The editors 

have been fortunate in having associated with them Mr. S. C. Hutchins, whose 
smallest contributions are the elaborate articles with which his name appears as 

author. In all their labors, in the preparation of manuscript, in criticism and in 
the final correction of the work, the editors have received such assistance from Mr. 
Hutchins as no one but an experienced journalist and writer could give. His 

intimate acquaintance with the prominent institutions and history of the State, has 

also been of special value. 

The mechanical execution of the work, in the beauty and finish of its heliotypes 
and in its letter-press, needs no commendation. 

The editors have been constantly impressed with the difficulty of securing 
accurate information even from those willing to aid them and best acquainted with 
the subjects they desired to discuss. Historical or biographical accuracy is most 
difficult of attainment. The editors cannot now expect that in so vast a work, 
dealing with such a variety of interests in their present condition and in the history 
of their growth, there may not be found mistakes as to facts, and statements that 
other writers would criticize or controvert. They submit their work to the kind 
consideration of the people of the State with the consciousness of having spared 
no effort or expense in making these volumes a faithful transcript of the Govern¬ 
ment of the State of New York in all its parts, and worthy of the subject of 
which they treat. 

P. A. CHADBOURNE. 

Albany, 1882. 


/ 


TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 

By ALONZO B. CORNELL, Governor. 

CHAPTER I. — Discovery of Hudson’s River. — Explorations of the Coast 
of New Netherland. — Trade with the Indians.--Charter of Trading 
Companies. — Purchase of Lands from the Indians, and Treaties with 
them. — West India Company Organized.— Local Governments Guaran¬ 
teed. — Commerce the Principal Vocation. — Manorial System Intro¬ 
duced. — Slow Growth of the Province. — Reforms Introduced. — 
Immigration of Religious Refugees,. 1-4 

CHAPTER II. — Cosmopolitan Character of the Commonwealth.— Dutch 
Jealousies of the English. — Indian Hostilities. — The Twelve Men.— 

Renewed Troubles with the Indians.—The Eight Men. — Subjugation of 
the Indians. — Taxation without Consent. — Director Stuyvesant. — The 
Nine Men. — Influence of the English. — Burger Governments Estab¬ 
lished. — Rensselaerswyck. — Independence of the Manor. — The Iro¬ 
quois. — Their Great Power. — Alliance with the Dutch. — English 
Opposition to Stuyvesant. — Declaration of Rights. — Stuyvesant Sub¬ 
dues Swedes on the South River. — Indian Outbreak. — Order Restored 

AND STUYVESANT’S SUPREMACY ESTABLISHED,.- 4-9 

CHAPTER III. — Accession of Charles II. — Condition of New Netherland.— 

Unity and Prosperity of the People. — Complications Surrounding Stuy¬ 
vesant. ■— Scott’s Temporary Government. — Commotions of the Peoples’ 
Representatives. — Scott’s Rebellion Suppressed. — Connecticut’s Aggres¬ 
sions. — Grant to the Duke of York. — Stuyvesant Surrenders. — Liberal 
Terms Granted. — Arbitrary Governments Established. — General Assem¬ 
bly Conceded.—The Charter of Liberties. — Accession of William and 
Mary. — Proceedings in the Colony,.9-13 




Vlll 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER IV. — New York at the Close of the Seventeenth Century. — 

Growth of Trade. — Prevalence of Piracy.— Rural Life. — Religious 
Liberty. — Social Condition. — Crime and Pauperism Little Known. — 
Management of the Colony. — Illicit Trade Connived at by Governors.— 

Their Profligacy. — Reforms Introduced, and Arbitrary Power Asserted 
by Bellomont. — Renewed Corruptions. — Popular Party Organized.— 

Religious Liberty Secured. -‘•The Assembly take Control of the 
Treasury. — Trouble with the French. — Freedom of the Press Vindi¬ 
cated.— Popular Government Established, ------- 13— 18 

CHAPTER V. — Encroachments upon the Royal Prerogative. — Powers of 
Governor Transferred to the General Assembly. — Unity among the 
People.— Quarrel between Clinton and De Lancey.—The Governor 
Seeks to Destroy the Power of the Assembly. — Restoring the “Ancient 
Constitution of the Government.” — “Consent of the Whole Legisla¬ 
ture” Necessary Thereto. — Sovereignty of the People Recognized.— 
Lieutenant-Governor De Lancey’s Administration. — French Power 
Destroyed. — Colden’s Accession.— Aggressions against Popular Rights.— 

Triumph of the People,.19-23 

CHAPTER VI. — Population of the Colony. — Debt, Taxes and Trade.— 

Churches and Schools.— Law and Medicine. — Social Life. — Crime and 
Pauperism. — Political Parties. —Oppressive Acts of Parliament, - - 23-27 

CHAPTER VII. — Resistance to Royal Oppressions. — The Writs of Assist¬ 
ance. —Taxation without Consent. — New York Initiates United Colonial 
Action. — Bold Declarations of Natural Rights.— Great Britain Deter¬ 
mines to Enforce Taxation. — Conference of the Committees of Corre¬ 
spondence. — Resistance to the Stamp Act in New York. — The Act 
Repealed. — Joy in the Colonies. — Provision for Troops Denied. — The 
Assembly Suspended by Parliament. — Riotous Proceedings in the City 
of New York. — Order with Liberty. — Assembly Maintains its Inalien¬ 


able Rights, and is Dissolved, ... 27-30 

CHAPTER VIII. — Co-operation with Sister Colonies.— Divisions in the 
General Assembly. — The Betrayers of the People Denounced. — Col¬ 


lisions between Troops and People. — Non-importation Agreement Modi¬ 
fied.— The Policy of Reconciliation.—The Breach again Widens.— 
Resistance to the Importation of Tea.—A General Congress Urged.— 
Organizations in the City of New York.—Action of the Continental 
Congress. — Approved by the People and Disapproved by the Assembly. — 
Inglorious Ending of the General. Assembly, ______ 31-36 




CONTENTS. 


IX 


CHAPTER IX. — Parties in New York. — The Traitorous Assembly. — Con¬ 
stitutional Liberty. — The Provincial Convention. — The Battle of 
Lexington.—Acts of the Sons of Liberty. — The Royal Government 
Prostrated. — Government by the People. — Movements in the City of 
New York.— Recommendations of the Continental Congress. — Prompt 
Action by the Provincial Congress. — Movements of General Schuyler.— 
The Invasion of Canada. — Council with the Indians.—Its Favorable 
Results. — Tories Driven from the Mohawk Valley. — Submission of 
the Mohawk Indians. — The Situation in New York at the Close of 
the Colonial Period,. _____ 

CHAPTER X. — Republican Government Organized. — Declaration of Inde¬ 
pendence Approved. — The State of New York Proclaimed.— The British 
Capture New York City, and Invade the Northern Department.— Sov¬ 
ereignty of the People over the Commonwealth Affirmed. — State 
Government Organized. — Supremacy of the Assembly Secured. — General 
George Clinton Elected Governor. — Perils of the Western Frontier.— 
Fort Schuyler Invested. — Battle of Oriskany.—The Siege Raised by 
Arnold. — Burgoyne Moves down the Upper Hudson, and Sir Henry 
Clinton Sails up the River. — Clinton’s Successes, and the Repulse of 
Burgoyne. — Retreat of the Latter. — Kingston Burned. — Burgoyne Sur¬ 
renders.— Indian Raids.—Military Operations around New York. — The 
City Evacuated. — New York and the War, ------- 

CHAPTER XI. — New York and the Union. — Early Colonial Associations.— 
The Confederation Supported and Strengthened by the Commonwealth.— 
Movements in Behalf of a More Perfect Union.— Favored by New 
York. — Customs Duties Granted to the Confederation. — Their Collec¬ 
tion by the State.—Weakness of the Confederation.—Commercial 
Convention Called. — Federal Constitutional Convention. — Considera¬ 
tion of the New Constitution. — Opposition to its Adoption. — Its Rati¬ 
fication. — Amendments Proposed and Adopted. — Subsequent State 
Elections. — The Federalists Sustained by the People. —Customs Reve¬ 
nues and Commercial Control Surrendered by New York for the Sake 
of the Union. — Also, Western Lands and the New Hampshire Grants, 

CHAPTER XII.— New York under the Articles of Confederation. — Condi¬ 
tion During the War.— Civil Divisions.—Population after the Adoption 

t 

of the Federal Constitution. — Topography. — Natural Resources of 
the Commonwealth. — The Actual Frontiers. — Treaties with the 
Indians. — Adjustment with Massachusetts. — Condition of Central and 
Western New York. — Relative Position of the States in the Union.— 
Geological Formations,. 


36-41 


42-48 


49-56 


57-62 


B 




X 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER XIII. — Fundamental Principles and Policies of the Common¬ 
wealth. — Religious Liberty and Equality. — Freehold Suffrage. — 
Encouragement of Immigration. — Free Lands.— Rapid Settlement.— 
Canals and Highways. — The First Steamboat.— New York becomes the 
First State in the Union.— Education. — The Salt Springs. — George 
Clinton and John Jay. — A Federal-Republican Policy. — Abolition of 
Slavery. — Currency and Banks, --------- 

CHAPTER XIV. —The Growth and Mutations of Parties. — Federal and 
Anti-Federal Organizations. — George Clinton Succeeded by John Jay.— 
The Governor and the Council of Appointment. — The Republican 
Party Organized. — De Witt Clinton becomes its Leader. — George 
Clinton again Elected Governor. — The Clintons Lose Control, but 
Regain it,.-. 

CHAPTER XV. — The Clintons Supreme. — Rupture between Tompkins and 
Clinton. — De Witt Clinton Becomes a Federal-Republican Candidate 
for President. — The Federal Supporters of Madison. — Martin Van 
Buren Sustains Clinton. — Return of the Latter to the Republican 
Party.—Federal Factionists oppose the War.— Madison and Tompkins 
Sustained by Federal and Republican Leaders. — De Witt Clinton 
Retired to Private Life. — He Favors the Canal Project. — Reorganizes 
the Federal-Republican Party. — Elected Governor. — Resists Republican 
Constitutional Reforms. — Place of Tompkins in History, - 

CHAPTER XVI. — A New Era of Progress.—VanBuren favors Conservative 
Reforms.— A Conservative Republican State Administration Organized.— 
De Witt Clinton Becomes the Leader of the Advanced Republicans.— 
The Conservatives Oppose the Choice of Presidential Electors by the 
People. — Clinton is Removed from the Office of Canal Commissioner. — 
Elected Governor as a Progressive Republican.— Powers and Privileges 
of the People Extended. — Divisions in the Republican Party. — Clinton 
and Van Buren as Rival Leaders. — Effect of National Politics upon 
Parties in this State. — Death of Clinton. — Greatness of his Char¬ 
acter, . _______ 

CHAPTER XVII. —Finances of the State.—Comptroller Marcy’s Manage¬ 
ment thereof. — The Canals and their Construction. — Anti-Masonic 
Excitement. — Diyisions in the Republican Party. — Silas Wright in the 
United States Senate. — The Electoral System. — Radical Administra¬ 
tion of Governor Tiiroop.— His Financial and Canal Policies. — Organ¬ 
izing against the Democratic Party. — Marcy in the United States 
Senate,. --------- 


63-70 


70-73 


73-78 


78-82 


82-85 






CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XVIII. — William L. Marcy Elected Governor. — He Favors the 
Clintonian Policy of Development. — Lateral Canals Constructed.— 
Loan on behalf of the Enlargement of the Erie Canal. — Ocean 
Steamers. — Railroads in the State. — Banking and Currency. — Free 
Banking System. — Organization of the Whig Party. — The Financial 
Crisis of 1837. — New York First Establishes School-District Libraries.— 
Df. Witt Clinton and William L. Marcy as Builders of the Common¬ 
wealth.— William H. Seward Elected Governor.— His Tribute to the 
Greatness of the State of New York, - -- -- -- - 

CHAPTER XIX. — Growth of the Great West. — Facilities of Communication 
Inadequate. — Enlarging Canals and Aiding Railroads. — Prostrate 
Finances. — Temporary Reverse to the Enlargement Policy. — Public 
Improvements Stopped. — The Radical School of Financiers. — The 
Democratic Party Returns to Power. — Conflict of Views. — Convention 
of 1846. — Increase of Popular Power. — An Independent Judiciary.— 
Codification of the Laws. — Restrictions upon the Legislature.—The 
Schools and Prisons, ------------ 

CHAPTER XX. —The Great Corporate and Business Interests of the Com¬ 
monwealth. — Their Organization and Growth. — General Laws for 
their Government.—Canal and Lake Commerce. — Organization of the 
General Free Banking System. — Tolls upon Railroads.—Their Aboli¬ 
tion.— Another Era of Progress. — Enlargement of the Canals. — The 
Constructive Work of William H. Seward, Silas Wright and Horatio 
Seymour, -------------- 

CHAPTER XXL — Regulating the Traffic in Intoxicating Liquors.— A 
Prohibitory Law Passed, Decided Unconstitutional and Repealed.— 
Rigorous Excise Enactments. — Divisions in the Democratic Party. — 
Success of the Republican Party. — State Supervision of Railroads. — 
Its Inauguration and Abandonment. — Telegraph Lines and Sub-Marine 
Cables. — The Atlantic Cable. — Insurance Department Organized.— 
Government of Cities, - -- -- -- -- -- 

CHAPTER XXII. — New York and the Civil War. — Union Defense Com¬ 
mittee of New York City. — Prompt Movements of the State Militia.— 
State Board of Enlistments. — Its Efficient Action. — Number of Volun¬ 
teers from the State of New York. — Distinguished Commanders from 
the State. — The Navy. — Vanderbilt. — United States Sanitary and 
Christian Commissions.— They Originate in New York. — Sums Expended 
by the State in the Prosecution of the War.—Patriotic Action of 
Citizens of the State. — Electors Absent in the Army Allowed to Vote, 


86-88 


89-92 


93-97 


98-100 


100-104 





Xll 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER XXIII. — Governor Seymour and the War.—The National Guard.— 
Invasion of Pennsylvania. — The Riots of 1863. — Change from War to 
Peace. — Governor Fenton and the Revision of the Constitution.— 
Policy of Governor Fenton’s Administration. — Aid to New Railroads.— 
Vetoes by Governors Morgan and Fenton.—The Constitutional Conven¬ 
tion of 1867. — Unfortunate Partisan Differences. — Provisions of the 
New Constitution. — John T. Hoffman Inaugurated Governor. — Submis¬ 
sion of the Constitution to the People. — The Judiciary Article 
Adopted. — Rest of the Constitution Defeated. — Work of the Conven¬ 
tion not Lost. — Low Tolls upon the Canals.— Unprecedented use of 
the Veto Power. — Restricted Use of the Pardoning Power. — District 
Commissions and tiieir Abandonment. — The New York Charter of 1870. — 
General Laws Passed. — Fraudulent Audits in the City of New York.— 
Remedies for Misconduct in Office,.- 

CHAPTER XXIV. — Revision of the Constitution. — Governor Hoffman’s 
Recommendations. — A Constitutional Commission Appointed.— Misuse of 
the Sinking P'unds. — They are to be kept Inviolate.— Gifts and Loans 
to Private Institutions Prohibited. — Economy in Expenditure urged by 
Governor Dix.—The Lateral Canals may be Sold or Abandoned.— 
Expenditures upon the Main Canals Limited to their Gross Receipts.— 
Extra Allowances to Contractors Prohibited. — Claims against the 
State. — Extra Compensation Forbidden. — Powers of the Governor 
Increased. — Local Indebtedness Prohibited, except for Purposes of 
Government. — Other Amendments. — The Property Qualification. — 
Superintendents of Public Works and State Prisons. — Governor Dix 
Favors the Amendments. — Their Adoption by the People. — Beneficial 
Results, - - - - - - - - - - - . - 

CHAPTER XXV.—The Organic Law of the State.—The Outgrowth of 
Experience.—The People Govern. — Remedies for Misconduct in Public 
Officers. — Powers of the Governor. — Wisdom of the Legislature. — 
Effect of its Action. — The Judiciary. — Government of Cities.—Tem¬ 
perance Legislation.— Compulsory Education. — The Legislature Carries 
the Amendments into Effect. — Canal Investigations. — Abuses in Canal 
Management. — Action and Recommendations of Governor Tilden. — 
Remedies Proposed by the Joint Committee of the two Houses of the 
Legislature. — Improved System of Administration. — Diminished Reve¬ 
nues and Decreased Expenditures. — Abandonment of Non-Productive 
Canals. — Increase of Local Indebtedness. — Governor Robinson’s Admin¬ 
istration. — Expenditures upon Public Institutions.— Railroad Strikes.— 
The National Guard. — State Prisons and Public Works. — Finances of 
the State Managed upon Sound Business Principles. — Successful Inaugu¬ 
ration of the New System of Administration,. 


105-109 


109-114 


115-121 



CONTENTS. 


Xlll 


CHAPTER XXVI. — The Elective Franchise.— Restricted to Freeholders 

DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD AND UNDER THE FIRST STATE CONSTITUTION. — 

Freemen of Albany and New York. — Religious Liberty. — Extension of 
the Elective Franchise to Tax Payers. —All Restrictions Abolished 
with Respect to White Citizens. — Property Qualification of Colored 
Citizens Abrogated. — Use of Money in Elections. — Viva Voce System.— 
Introduction of Ballots. — Uniform Ballots Required. — Conduct of 
Elections. — Canvass of Votes. — Contested Elections, .... 122-124 

CHAPTER XXVII. — Course of Immigration. — Progress of Settlement.— 

Increase in Population. — Density of Urban Localities. — Population of 
the Rural Districts. — Number of Families in the State. — Number and 
Value of Dwellings. — Voters and Males of Military Age.—The School 
Census — Children of the School Age.—Number and Value of School- 
houses.— Number and Salaries of Teachers.— Expenditures for Public 
Education. — Amount of the State School Tax. — Incorporated Acade¬ 
mies.— Value of Property. — Attendance and Revenue. — Colleges, Value 
of Property.—Number of Graduates.—Debts of Colleges and Academies.— 
Charitable Institutions, Private, Local and State.—Value of Property.— 

Receipts and Expenses. — Appropriations of the State for Charitable 
Purposes.—Appropriations by Local Authorities for Local Charities.— 

Amounts of Private Contributions. — Statistics of the Churches. — Value 
of Property and Salaries of the Clergy. — Area of the State. — Acres 
of Land Assessed. — Valuations. — Local Taxation and Indebtedness.— 

The Debt of the State. — Local Indebtedness Classified. — Bonded 
Indebtedness,..125-130 

CHAPTER XXVIII. — Occupations. — Agricultural Statistics. — Acreage, 

Number, Size and Value of Farms.—Fences, Fertilizers, Live Stock and 
Products. — Statistics of Iron Production.—Capital Invested.—Employees 
and Wages Paid. —Value of Materials. —Value and Weight of Products.— 

Statistics of Leading Manufactures. —Transportation. — Commerce.— 

Exports and Imports.— Revenue.— Banking and Insurance. — Corpora¬ 
tions.— Moral and Material Results of Free Government, - - - 131-138 


THE EXECUTIVE. 

By THOMAS G. ALVORD. 

CHAPTER I. — Duties and Powers of the Governor of the Colony. — Chief 
Executive and Chief Judge. — The Governor’s Council. — The Governor 
and Councils under the First State Constitution. — Increased Power 

UNDER THE SECOND CONSTITUTION. — APPOINTMENTS TO OFFICE. — APPOINT¬ 
MENTS by Governor and Senate Reduced under the Constitution of 1846, 139—143 



XIV 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER II.— The Governor as President of the Council.— He is Instructed 
not to Meet with the Council in its Legislative Capacity. — The Lieu¬ 
tenant-Governor.— The Office During the Colonial Period. — Increased 
Importance under the State Constitution. — President of the Court of 
Errors. — Other Duties under the First Constitution. — Changes therein 
by the Second Constitution. — Present Powers and Duties. — A Commis¬ 
sioner of the Land Office, Member of the Canal Board, the New Capitol 
Commission, and other Boards. — Salary,. 

CHAPTER III. — Executive Departments under Dutch and English Rule.— 
Continued under the First State Constitution.—Heads thereof Appointed 
by the Legislature under the Second Constitution. — Elected by the 
People under the Constitution of 1846. — Boards of which they are 
Members,. 

CHAPTER IV. — Executive Departments, the Heads of which are Elected 
by the Legislature or Appointed by the Governor and Senate. — Public 
Instruction.—Banks. — Insurance. — The State Prisons. —The Canal 
Appraisers. —Auditor of the Canal Department. — Superintendent of 
Public Works. — Other Branches of the Public Service, - 

CHAPTER V. — Recent Amendments to the Constitution. — Powers and 
Responsibility of the Governor Increased. — Supervision of the Execu¬ 
tive Departments. — Enforcement of the Laws. — His Power to Veto 
Appropriations and Laws. — The Office of Private Secretary. — Executive 
Chamber. — Residence of the Governor. — Chief Executives of the Colony 
and State, .'. 

DIRECTORS-GENERAL OF THE PROVINCE, ----- 

GOVERNORS OF THE COLONY, . 

PRESIDENTS OF THE CONGRESSES,.. 

GOVERNORS OF THE STATE,. 

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNORS,. 

BIOGRAPHIES: 

ALONZO B. CORNELL, Governor,. 

GEORGE G. HOSKINS, Lieutenant-Governor,. 

HENRY EDWARD ABELL, Private Secretary, 


I43-H5 


146-148 


148-150 

151- 152 

152 

152- 153 

153 

153 

154 

155-163 
164, 165 
166 









CONTENTS. 


XV 


STAFF OF THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 


Appointed by the Governor.— Powers and Duties of the Adjutant-General.— 

Salaries. — The Inspector-General. — The Chief of Ordnance. — His 
Duties. — The Judge-Advocate-General. — The General Inspector of 
Rifle Practice, .. 167, 168 

BIOGRAPHIES: 

FREDERICK TOWNSEND, Adjutant-General,. 169, 170 

ROBERT SHAW OLIVER, Inspector-General,. 171, 172 

DANIEL D. WYLIE, Chief of Ordnance,. 172 

LLOYD ASPINWALL, Engineer-in-Chief,. 173, 174 

HORACE RUSSELL, Judge-Advocate-General,. 175 

WILLIAM H. WATSON, Surgeon-General, 176 

CHARLES P. EASTON, Quartermaster-General,. 176, 177 

JACOB W. HOYSRADT, Paymaster-General,. 178, 179 

CHARLES J. LANGDON, Commissary-General of Subsistence, - - 179 

ALFRED C. BARNES, General Inspector of Rifle Practice, - - - 180, 181 

JAMES M. VARNUM, Aide-de-Camp,. 182 

HENRY M. WATSON, Aide-de-Camp, - . 182 

FRANCIS N. MANN, Jr., Aide-de-Camp, - -. 183 

CHARLES S. FRANCIS, Aide-de-Camp,. 183, 184 

JOHN T. MOTT, Aide-de-Camp, --------- 184 

JOHN S. McEWAN, Assistant Adjutant-General, ------ 185 

FREDERICK PHISTERER, Acting Assistant Adjutant-General, - - 186 

JOHN B. STONEHOUSE, Acting Assistant Adjutant-General, - 186 


THE MILITIA 

By Major-General FREDERICK TOWNSEND, Adjutant-General. 

Origin of the Militia. — The Militia during the Revolutionary War. — Uni¬ 
form Militia throughout the United States Established. — The Law 
passed by Congress in 1792, the Organic Law for the Militia. — The 
Militia Laws Sedulously Enforced in the States.—The Annual Parades.— 
Development of the Uniformed Militia. — The National Guard of the 
State of New York. — The National Guard Reduced. — What it now 
Comprises.— The Militia and the Continentals. — The Number of them 
Furnished by the States during the Revolution.—The Regular Army 
in the War of 1812. — Officers and Men engaged in the Mexican War.— 

Number of Men Furnished by the State of New York during the 
Rebellion, - -.187-194 







I 


CONTENTS. 


BIOGRAPHIES: 

ALEXANDER SHALER, Major-General, Commanding First Division, - 195—197 

JAMES JOURDAN, Major-General, Commanding Second Division, - - 198-200 

JOSEPH B. CARR, Major-General, Commanding Third Division, - - 219-221 

WILLIAM F. ROGERS, Major-General, Commanding Fourth Division, - 201, 202 

WILLIAM G. WARD, Brigadier-General, Commanding First Brigade, - 203 

LOUIS FITZGERALD, Brigadier-General, Commanding Second Brigade, 204 

C. T. CHRISTENSEN, Brigadier-General, Commanding Third Brigade, - 205,206 

WM. H. BROWNELL, Brigadier-General, Commanding Fourth Brigade, 206 

T. ELLERY LORD, Brigadier-General, Commanding Fifth Brigade, - - 207 

SYLVESTER DERING, Brigadier-General, Commanding Sixth Brigade, - 208 

DWIGHT H. BRUCE, Brigadier-General, Commanding Seventh Brigade, - 209 

JOHN C. GRAVES, Brigadier-General, Commanding Eighth Brigade, - 210 


ARMS AND SEALS OF THE STATE. 

By HENRY A. HOMES, LL. D. 

Various Early Devices for the Arms and Seals of New York described.— 

First Adoption of a State Seal. — An Attempt to Reconstruct the Arms, 
from Early Specimens. — A Commission appointed by the Legislature, in 

1880, TO REPORT AN EXACT DESCRIPTION OF THE ORIGINAL ARMS.—A DESCRIP¬ 
TION of the Arms as Approved by the Commission. — Embodied in a Law 
Enacted by the Legislature of 1882. — Historical Relations and Remark¬ 
able Significance of the Various Symbols Embodied in the Arms of the 
State of New York,.- - - - 211-214 


THE SECRETARY OF STATE. 

By JOSEPH B. CARR. 

Secretaries of the Province.—Their Duties. — Salary. — Board of Commis¬ 
sioners of the Land Office. — Board of State Canvassers. — The Canal 
Fund. — The Canal Board. — The Secretary Elected by the People.— 


His Duties and Powers, - - - -. 215-218 

SECRETARIES OF THE PROVINCE, . 218 

SECRETARIES OF STATE, . 218 

BIOGRAPHIES: 

JOSEPH B. CARR, Secretary of State,. 219-221 

ANSON S. WOOD, Deputy Secretary of State,. 221, 222 




CONTENTS. 


XVII 


THE COMPTROLLER. 

By IRA DAVENPORT. 

Board of Audit. — A Commission to Audit Accounts. — Auditor-General 
Appointed.—The Office of Comptroller Created. — Its Powers and 
Duties. — Permanently Organized in 1812. — Responsibilities of the Comp¬ 
troller Increased. — The Chief Financial Officer of the State. — His 
Arduous Duties. — The Custodian of the General Fund. — Audits Public 
Accounts. — Loans the Moneys of the State. — Manages its Trust 
Funds. — Reports Annually to the Legislature. — Elected Biennially, - 223-226 

COMPTROLLERS,. 226 

BIOGRAPHIES: 

• JAMES W. WADSWORTH, Comptroller, 1880-81, - 227 

IRA DAVENPORT, Comptroller, 1882-83, -------- 228 

HENRY GALLIEN, Deputy Comptroller,. 228 

THE TREASURER. 

By ROBERT A. MAXWELL. 

First Treasurer of the Province of New Netherland. — The Treasurer the 
People’s Agent.— How Appointed. — Moneys paid into the Treasury.— 

The Duties of the Treasurer. — His Bond. — His other Official Rela¬ 
tions.— Condition of the Treasury in 1882. — Growth of the State,- - 229,230 

TREASURERS,. 230 

BIOGRAPHIES: 

NATHAN D. WENDELL, State Treasurer, 1880-81, . 231 

ROBERT A. MAXWELL, State Treasurer, 1882-83, . 232 

EDGAR K. APGAR, Deputy State Treasurer, ------ 233 

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. 

By LESLIE W. RUSSELL. 

The Schout-Fiscal of New Netherland. — The Attorney-General under Eng¬ 
lish Rule. — The Advocate-General.— The First Attorney-General of 
the State of New York.— His Varied and Important Duties.—A Legal 
Adviser of all the Departments of the State. — Counsel of the People 
BEFORE THE STATE BOARD OF AUDIT.— HlS ASSISTANTS,.234-236 


C 





XV 111 


CONTENTS. 


ATTORNEYS-GENERAL,.. 236 

BIOGRAPHIES: 

HAMILTON WARD, Attorney-General, 1880-81,. 237 

LESLIE W. RUSSELL, Attorney-General, 1882-83, ..... 238 

WILLIAM B. RUGGLES, First Deputy Attorney-General, 1880-81, - 239 

CHARLES J. EVERETT, Second Deputy Attorney-General, 1880-81, - 239 

JAMES A. DENNISON, First Deputy Attorney-General, 1882-83, - - 240 

JOHN C. KEELER, Second Deputy Attorney-General, 1882-83, - - 240 


STATE ENGINEER AND SURVEYOR. 

By SILAS SEYMOUR. 

A Land Surveyor Appointed by the Dutch Colonists of New Netherland.— 
His Salary. — The Surveyor-General.—The Office Abolished in 1846.— 

A State Engineer and Surveyor Appointed. — His Duties.— How often 
Elected.— His Salary.— His Assistants. — The Engineer Department of 
the Canals under the Supervision of the State Engineer and Sur¬ 
veyor.— The Improvement of Navigation upon the Hudson River also 


Supervised by him. — He Appoints a Canal Clerk and also a Land Cleric, 241,242 

SURVEYORS-GENERAL,. 242 

STATE ENGINEERS AND SURVEYORS, . 242 

BIOGRAPHIES: 

HORATIO SEYMOUR, Jr., State Engineer and Surveyor, 1878-81, - - 243 

SILAS SEYMOUR, State Engineer and Surveyor, 1882-83, - - - 244-246 

EDWARD DELAVAN SMALLEY. Deputy State Engineer and Surveyor, 246 


THE CANAL DEPARTMENT. 

The Constructing of Canals to Connect Lakes Erie, Ontario and Champlain 
with the Hudson River, Discussed. — Navigation Companies first Organ¬ 
ized.— The Legislature, in 1810, appoints a Commission to Explore a 
Route for a Canal to Lake Erie.—The Commissioners Empowered to 
Purchase the Rights and Interests of the Western Inland Lock Navi¬ 
gation Company.—The Supreme Court Empowered to Appoint a Commis¬ 
sion to Appraise the Value of the Property. — The Amount Paid. — First 
Commissioners of Construction Appointed in 1816. — Their Duties.— 

The Office Abolished in 1876. —A Superintendent of Public Works 
Appointed.—The Canal Fund.—What it Embraces. — Canal Appraisers 
Appointed in 1825. — Auditor of the Canal Department. — The Canal 
Board. — Its Powers and Duties.—Free Canals,. 247,248 




CONTENTS. 


XIX 


SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC WORKS. 

By SILAS B. DUTCHER. 

Office of Canal Commissioner Abolished. —A Superintendent of Public 
Works Appointed in 1876.— The Chief Executive of the Canals.— 
Appointed by the Governor, with the Consent of the Senate. — His Term 
of Office.—The Amount of his Bond. — Assistant Superintendents.— 

Salaries of the Superintendent and iiis Assistants,.249, 250 

BIOGRAPHIES: 

SILAS BELDEN DUTCHER, Superintendent of Public Works, - 251 

JAMES D. HANCOCK, Assistant Superintendent of Public Works, - 252 

WILLIAM V. VAN RENSSELAER, Assistant Superintendent of Public 

Works,.- - 252 

OSSIAN BEDELL, Assistant Superintendent of Public Works, - - 252 


THE CANAL APPRAISERS. 

By WILLIAM J. MORGAN. 

Claims on Account of Land Damages. — Canal Commissioners Authorized to 
take Lands Necessary for the Proposed Canals.— Appointment of Disin¬ 
terested Persons as Appraisers. — The Duty of Canal Commissioners 
to act as Appraisers. — The Appraisal, under the Law of 1821, Subject 
to Revision by the Supreme Court.— Two Freeholders Appointed to be 
Associated with one of the Acting Canal Commissioners as Appraisers.— 
Compensation for their Services. — Appeal by Claimants to the Board 
of Canal Commissioners.— Tiie Supreme Court made the Appellate Tri¬ 
bunal. — Authority Conferred upon Canal Commissioners to Enter 
Appeals in the Interest of the State.— Unsatisfactory Methods. — A 
Separate Department Established.—Three Canal Appraisers Appointed.— 
Their Power and Duties.— Salaries.— Extended Jurisdiction. — Acting 


BOTH FOR THE STATE AND FOR CLAIMANTS. —TlIEIR OFFICE IN THE STATE 

Hall.— Gross Sum Awarded to Claimants in 1880,. 253,254 

BIOGRAPHIES: 

WILLIAM J. MORGAN, Canal Appraiser, ------- 255 

WILLIAM R. BOSTWICK, Canal Appraiser,. 255 

CHARLES M. DENNISON, Canal Appraiser,. 256 

De WITT J. APGAR, Clerk of the Board of Canal Appraisers, - 256 



XX 


CONTENTS. 


AUDITOR OF THE CANAL DEPARTMENT. 

By JOHN A. PLACE. 

Office of Auditor of the Canal Department Created. — Powers and Duties 
Devolving upon the Auditor. — The Auditing and Chief Accounting 
Officer of the Canal Fund. — Appointed by the Governor, with the 
Consent of the Senate. — His .Term of Office. — His Salary. — Statement 
of Receipts and Payments on Account of all the State Canals to the 
close of the Fiscal Year ending September 30, 1882,.257-259 

BIOGRAPHIES: 

JOHN A. PLACE, Auditor of the Canal Department, - 267 

EDMUND SAVAGE, Deputy Auditor of the Canal Department, - - 271 


PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 

By NEIL GILMOUR. 

First Free-school Law. — Appropriations for Common School Purposes.— 
Office of Superintendent of Common Schools Created. — Abolished in 
1821. — Office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction Created 
in 1854.— How the Superintendent is Chosen. — His Term of Office.— 


The Duties he Performs.— His Salary, - -.260-262 

SUPERINTENDENTS OF COMMON SCHOOLS, .... 2 6 2 

GENERAL DEPUTIES (Under Secretary of State), .... 262 

SUPERINTENDENTS OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, . 262 

BIOGRAPHIES: 

NEIL GILMOUR, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, - - 268 

ADDISON A. KEYES, Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction, - 271 


THE BANKING DEPARTMENT. 

By A. B. HEPBURN. 

Creation of the “Bank Fund,” now Generally Known as the “Safety 
Fund.”—Three Commissioners Appointed. — Their Duties. — How Chosen.— 

Their Salary.—The Commissioners Abolished in 1843. — Banks required 
to Report to the Comptroller.— The Bank Department and the Office 
of the Superintendent of the Banking Department Created. — What 
the Superintendent is Charged with. — How Appointed. — His Salary, - 263,264 


CONTENTS. 


BIOGRAPHIES: 

A. B. HEPBURN, Superintendent of the Banking Department, - - 269, 270 

JAMES S. THURSTON, Deputy Superintendent of the Banking Depart¬ 
ment, . 272 


THE INSURANCE DEPARTMENT. 

By CHARLES G. FAIRMAN. 

Insurance Department Established in 1859. —Its Inception. — Necessity for 
a Separate Department for the Supervision of Insurance Corporations.— 
Increasing Importance of Life Insurance.—The Superintendent Appointed 
by the Governor with the Consent of the Senate.—H is Term of Office.— 

His Supervisions and Requirements.— His Salary. — His Power over Insur¬ 
ance Interests, . 265,266 

BIOGRAPHIES: 

CHARLES G. FAIRMAN, Superintendent of the Insurance Department, 270 

JOHN A. McCALL, Jr., Deputy Superintendent of the Insurance Depart¬ 
ment, -------------- 272 


ASSESSMENT AND TAXATION. 

By JOHN C. WINSLOW. 

Theory of the Laws Regulating Assessment and Taxation in New York.— 
Property Exempted from Assessment. — Personal and Real Property of 
Clergymen. — Property Exempted by Law from Execution. — Minor 
Articles of Family and Household Use. — Exemption of a Homestead.— 
What Species of Property is Liable to Assessment. — The Officials 
Charged with the Execution of the Laws Relating to Assessment 
and Collection of Taxes. — Payment of Taxes Enforced, if Necessary.— 
Functions of the Board of Supervisors. — State Board of Equalization 
Created. — How the Equalization is made.—The Intent of the Assess¬ 
ment Law. — Total Assessed Valuation of the Real and Personal Prop¬ 
erty in the State in 1879. —Defects of the System.—The Subject of 


Tax Reform Considered. — Important Changes made in 1881, - - - 273-276 

BIOGRAPHIES: 

JOHN S. FOWLER, State Assessor,. 277 

JAMES H. WEATHERWAX, State Assessor,. 277 

C. P. VEDDER, State Assessor,. 278 






XXII 


CONTENTS. 


THE STATE PRISONS. 


By LOUIS D. PILSBURV. 


Prison System of the State of New York Inaugurated in 1796. — Its Provis¬ 
ions.— Prison in the city of New York opened in 1797.—System of Gov¬ 
ernment in Prisons.—Severity of Punishments. — Complaints against the 
Competition of Prison Labor.—The So-called “Public Account Sys¬ 
tem.”— The “Contract System.” — Its Provisions. —Erection of the 
State Prison at Auburn. — Inspectors Appointed. — State Prison Erected 
at Mount Pleasant, now Sing Sing. — Three Inspectors of State Prisons 
Elected.—Their Powers. — Popular Discontent with Prison Adminis¬ 
tration.— A Board of Managers Appointed. — The Office of Superin¬ 
tendent of State Prisons Created. — His Salary.—Extensive Powers 
Granted the Superintendent.— Improved Condition of the Prisons.— 

Now more than pay their Expenses.— Best System of Reformation for 
Prisoners Suggested,.. 279-286 


BIOGRAPHIES: 

LOUIS D. PILSBURY, Superintendent of State Prisons, 
ISAAC V. BAKER, Jr., Superintendent of State Prisons, 


1877-82 



HISTORY OF THE STATE PRISONS. 

AUBURN STATE PRISON: 

Bv FRANK L. JONES, Agent and Warden. 

Established by an Act of the Legislature, in 1816. — The Prison 
Buildings Described. — Under the Management of a Board of 
Three Inspectors. — The Governor Empowered to Appoint a Super¬ 
intendent of State Prisons, in 1877. — Hon. Louis D. Pilsbury 
Receives the Appointment. — One of the Beneficial Results of 
this Change in the Administration of the Prisons. — The Trades 

PLIED IN THE PRISON. — WORK LET TO CONTRACTORS. — NUMBER OF 

Prisoners now in the Institution. — The Discipline, - - - 289-291 

SING SING STATE PRISON: 

By AUGUSTUS A. BRUSH, Agent and Warden. 

Its Location. — The Building Commenced in 1825. — Finished in less 

THAN THREE YEARS. — ADDITIONAL STRUCTURES SINCE ERECTED. — 

Ceases to be a Prison for Women. — The Buildings Described.— 

Those Occupied by Messrs. Perry & Company, Stove Manufac¬ 
turers.— Number of Prisoners Employed by them.—The Residence 
of the Warden. — Ground Occupied by the Structures. — Finan¬ 
cial Results of the Present System of Labor and Administration, 292-294 





CONTENTS. xxiii 

CLINTON STATE PRISON: 

By ISAIAH FULLER, Agent and Warden. 

Movement Resulting in the Establishment of this Prison. — An Iron 
Mine and Land Purchased by the State in Clinton County. — 

Location of the Prison.— Completed in 1846. — Board of State 
Prison Inspectors take Formal Possession.— Extensive Iron Works 
Built. — Boots and Shoes Manufactured. — Extension of the 
Prison Building.— Railroad Communication.— Enlargement of the 
Prison in 1881.—The Prison Grounds. —The Manufacture of 


Hats. — Whole Number of Convicts now in Prison. — The Agent 

and Warden, ------------ 294-297 

STATE ASYLUM FOR INSANE CRIMINALS: 

By CARLOS F. MACDONALD, M. D., Superintendent. 


Under the Control of the Superintendent of State Prisons. — Situ¬ 
ated IN THE CITY OF AUBURN.— THE BUILDING DESCRIBED. — ORIGI¬ 
NALLY Designated the “Asylum for Insane Criminals.” — Its 
Corporate Title Changed in 1869. — Sources whence the Asylum 
Derives its Patients. — Purposes for which the Asylum was Cre¬ 
ated.— Number of Patients Treated,. 300,301 

BIOGRAPHIES: 

FRANK L. JONES, Agent and Warden of Auburn Prison, - - - 298 

AUGUSTUS A. BRUSH, Agent and Warden of Sing Sing Prison, - - 298 

ISAIAH FULLER, Agent and Warden of Clinton Prison, - - - 299 

HENRY L. ARNOLD, State Agent for Discharged Convicts, - - - 299 

CARLOS F. MACDONALD, M. D., Medical Superintendent of the State 

Asylum for Insane Criminals, --------- 302 


PUBLIC CHARITIES. 

By STEPHEN C. HUTCHINS, 

UNDER SUPERVISION OF 

The Honorable WILLIAM P. LETCH WORTH, President State Board of Charities. 

CHAPTER I. — Relief of the Indigent among the Ancients; a Function of 
State._The Roman System. — Christianity Exalts Charity. — The Humani¬ 

tarian Work of the Cpiurch.— Care of the Insane in Ancient and 
Mediaeval Times. — Care of the Impotent Poor in England. — Laws against 
the “Sin of Idleness.” — Legislation with Regard to Vagrancy. — Poor- 
houses for the Poor, and Work-houses for the Idle. — The English 
Statutes Governed the Colony of New York. — Striking Contrast with 
Modern Times, - . 3 Q 3 - 3°7 





XXIV 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER II. — Parish Relief under the Dutch. — Stringent Colonial Laws 
against Vagrancy. — Safeguards against Alien Paupers. —Able-bodied 
Poor Required to Work.—Policy of the State. — Relief of the Poor.— 

Stringent Enactments against Unsettled Paupers. — Views of De Witt 
Clinton. — Unwise Encouragement to Mendicity.— Necessity for Coercive 
Labor. — Failure of the English Poor System. — State Laws against 
Vagrancy. — Present System of Care of the Poor. — Degeneracy of Man¬ 
agement of Poor-houses. — Their Inmates: Numbers, Classification, 
Illiteracy and Helplessness,. ----- 307-312 

CHAPTER III. — Prevention of Pauperism and Crime. — The Sustenance upon 
which Mendicity Feeds. — Poor and Criminal Reforms. — Disgraceful 
Condition of the County Jails.— Care and Reformation of Female Con¬ 
victs.— Work-houses and Penitentiaries. — Society for the Prevention 
of Pauperism. — Savings Banks. — Houses of Refuge.— Care of Neglected 
Children. — Orphan Asylums and Homes of the Friendless. — Public 
School Society: Free Schools,. ----- 312-317 

CHAPTER IV. — Efforts to Ameliorate the Condition of the Unfortu¬ 
nate.— The Indigent in Poor-houses; in City Alms-houses. — Incorporated 
Societies and the State Seek their Relief. — Schools for Deaf-mutes, 
for the Blind, and for tpie Idiotic. — Statistics of these Institutions, 
and Numbers of these Unfortunates in the State,.317—323 

CHAPTER V. — Organized Effort to Relieve the Sufferings of the Poor.— 
Incorporated Hospitals and Dispensaries. — Care of the Insane. — Hospi¬ 
tals for the Treatment of the Curable, and Asylums for the Incur¬ 
able.— Insane Persons in Public and Private Institutions.— Statistics 
of the New York State Lunatic Asylum, the Hudson River State Hos¬ 
pital, the State Homoeopathic Asylum at Middletown, the Buffalo 
State Asylum, the Willard Asylum, and the Binghamton Asylum.— 

Present Facilities for the Care of Acute and Chronic Insane, - - 323-327 


CHAPTER VI. — The Board of State Commissioners of Public Charities; 

Its Powers and Duties, and its Method of Working. — The Public and 
the Poor-houses; System of Visitation. — Incorporated Charities in the 
State. — The Board and the State Institutions. — Unification of the 
System of State Charities. — The State Board of Charities; its Powers 
Enlarged. — The Board and the Poor-house. — It Effects Important 
Reforms. — Removal of Children and of the Insane. — Hospitals Estab¬ 
lished, and Uniform System of Records Secured. — State and Alien 
Paupers. — Beneficiaries, Valuation, Receipts and Expenditures of the 
Charitable Institutions in the State,. 328-334 

MEMBERS OF THE STATE BOARD OF CHARITIES, - - 334 





CONTENTS. 


XXV 


BIOGRAPHIES: 

WILLIAM P. LETCHWORTH, President of the State Board of Chari- 

TIES >.-. 335-339 


STEPHEN SMITH, M. D., Commissioner of State Charities, First District, 340 

WILLIAM R. STEWART, Commissioner of State Charities, First District, 340 

EDWARD C. DONNELLY, Commissioner of State Charities, ... 341 

JOHN J. MILHAU, M. D., Commissioner of State Charities, - - - 342 

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL, Commissioner of State Charities, - - 343 

SARAH M. CARPENTER, Commissioner of State Charities, Second 

District,. 344 

RIPLEY ROPES, Commissioner of State Charities,. 344 

JOHN H. VAN ANTWERP, Commissioner of State Charities, Third 

District,. 345 

EDWARD W. FOSTER, Commissioner of State Charities, Fourth District, 346 

JOHN C. DEVEREUX, Commissioner of State Charities, Fifth District, 347 

SAMUEL F. MILLER, Commissioner of State Charities, Sixth District, 348 

OSCAR CRAIG, Commissioner of State Charities, Seventh District, - 348 

CHARLES S. HOYT, M. D., Secretary of the State Board of Charities, 349 

JAMES O. FANNING, Assistant Secretary of the State Board of Charities, 349 


STATE COMMISSIONER IN LUNACY. 

The Office Created in 1873. — Duties of the Commissioner. — Required 

to Report to the Legislature. — His Salary.—Term of Office, - 350 

BIOGRAPHIES: 

JOHN ORDRONAUX, M. D., State Commissioner in Lunacy, 1873-82 351 

STEPHEN SMITH, M. D., State Commissioner in Lunacy, - 351 

HISTORY OF STATE CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. 

NEW YORK STATE LUNATIC ASYLUM: 

By M. M. BAGG, M. D. 

An Act to Authorize the Establishment of this Asylum passed in 
1830. — One hundred and thirty Acres of Land Purchased on 
the Western Border of the City of Utica.— Buildings Erected.— 

The Institution Opened in 1843. — Description of the Structure.— 
Superintendency of Dr. Brigham. —Appointment of Dr. John P. 

Gray. — Improved System of Ventilation and of Warming the 
Building.—Visited by a Disastrous Fire in 1857. — Enlarged Facili¬ 
ties for Treatment. — Its Library.— Dr. Bucknill’s high Estimate 
of the Asylum. — Continued Course of Progress in its Scientific 
and Medical Work.— Number of Cases Admitted since the Open¬ 
ing in 1843. — Board of Managers. — Resident Officers, - - - 35 2 ~356 


d 





XXVI 


CONTENTS. 


HISTORY OF STATE CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS — Continued 

WILLARD ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE: 

By JOHN B. CHAPIN, M. D., Superintendent. 

Located at Willard, on the Seneca Lake, New York. — Established 
by an Act of the Legislature, in 1865. — What it Constitutes.— 
Named after Dr. Willard. — Opened for Patients in 1869.— Present 
Number in the Asylum. — The Building and Premises. — Total 
Amount of Appropriations. — How Patients are Received. — Gen¬ 
eral Plan and Scope of the Asylum.— Cost of the Support of 
Patients. — Board of Trustees. — Officers of the Board.— Resi¬ 
dent Officers, ------------ 

HUDSON RIVER STATE HOSPITAL: 

By J. M. CLEAVELAND, M. D., Superintendent. 

Located near the City of Poughkeepsie. — Planned to Accommodate 

ABOUT TWO HUNDRED PATIENTS.—A DESCRIPTION OF THE HOSPITAL.— 

System of Ventilation, and the Application of Steam Heat.— 
Opened in 1871. — Number of Cases of Insanity Committed to the 
Institution. — Number Discharged, Removed or Died. — Board of 
Managers. — Resident Officers,. 

BUFFALO STATE ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE: 

By JLTDSON B. ANDREWS, M. D., Superintendent. 

Commissioners Appointed to Select a Suitable Site in the Eighth 
Judicial District. — The one at Buffalo Selected.—The Act to 
Establish the Asylum in the City of Buffalo passed in 1870. — 
The Land Donated by the city. — Dr. John P. Gray’s Ground-plan 
of the Buildings Adopted.— The Style of Architecture. — The 
Structure Described. — How Fresh Air is Forced into the Build¬ 
ing.— The Water Supply. — Lighted by Gas. — Officially Opened 
for the Reception of Patients of both Sexes, on the 15TH of 
November, 1880. — Board of Managers.— Officers of the Board.— 
Officers of the Asylum, -. 

HOMOEOPATHIC ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE: 

By SELDEN H. TALCOTT, M. D., Superintendent. 

Located at Middletown. — Organized in 1869, by Dr. George F. Foot.— 
Converted into a State Institution. — Its Trustees. — The Site 
Chosen, a Farm of two hundred Acres. — Appropriations by the 
Legislature.— The Buildings Described.—The Main Building 
Opened on the 20TH of April, 1874. —First Officers of the 
Asylum.— A Self-sustaining Institution.— Methods Employed for 
the Restoration of the Insane. — Board of Trustees.—Officers 
of the Asylum,. 


359 ? 360 


362, 363 


364-366 


368-370 






CONTENTS. 


XXVll 


HISTORY OF STATE CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS — Continued 

BINGHAMTON ASYLUM FOR CHRONIC INSANE: 

By T. S. ARMSTRONG, Superintendent. 

Located in the City of Binghamton. — Commodious and well-built 
Structures. — Capacity Sufficient for the Accommodation of four 
hundred Inmates. — A Farm of four hundred and eighty-seven 
Acres attached to the Asylum. — Grounds tastefully laid out.— 
The Original Institution Established as an Inebriate Asylum.— 
The Property Transferred to the State. — How Managed. — 
Board of Trustees. — Officers,.- - 

NEW YORK INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND: 

By WILLIAM B. WAIT, Superintendent. 

Its Origin. — A Charter Granted. — Building Erected.— The Ground 
now Occupied for the Purpose of the Institution. — Built of 
Sing Sing Sandstone. — Cost of Land and Building. — The Prop¬ 
erty Devoted without Charge to the State.— Board of Man¬ 
agers. — Officers of the Board,. 

STATE INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND: 

By A. D. WILBOR, D. D„ Superintendent. 

An Act to Authorize the Establishment of the Institution passed 
in 1865. — The Site Selected in the Village of Batavia. — The 
Structure Completed in 1868. —The Building Described.—New 
Buildings Erected in 1875. —The whole Cost of the Structures.— 
Trustees Appointed by the Governor. — Appropriations by the 
Legislature.—The School Opened in 1868. — Asa D. Lord, M. D. — 
Primary Object of the Institution. — The Studies Pursued.— 
Industries Taught.— Board of Trustees.— Officers of the Board, 

INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB: 

By ISAAC LEWIS PEET, LL. D., Principal. 

Incorporated under the Presidency of DeWitt Clinton. — Opened in 
igig.— Appropriation by the State. — Course of Instruction.— 
New Buildings Erected in 1878. — Rapid Growth of the Institu- 
TION . — Methods of Instruction.— Board of Directors. — Officers 
of the Board. — Resident Officers,. 

NEW YORK ASYLUM FOR IDIOTS: 

By H. B. WILBUR, M. D., Superintendent. 

First Attempt to Found a State Institution for Idiots in New York.— 
Appropriations for the Erection of Suitable Buildings. — The 
Gift of a Site in the Vicinity of Syracuse.—A Building Erected 
IN 1S55._-.THE Aim and Scope of the Institution. — Board of 
Trustees. —Officers of the Asylum, ------- 


373 , 374 


375 , 376 


378-381 


383-385 


387-389 



XXV111 


CONTENTS. 


HISTORY OF STATE CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS — Continued : 
NEW YORK HOUSE OF REFUGE: 

By ISRAEL C. JONES, Superintendent. 

Origin of the Institution.— Its Managers. — Gratifying Results.— 
Site of the First Building. — Its Present Location. — Its Sup¬ 
port.— Accommodations. — Discipline. — Board of Managers, - 

WESTERN HOUSE OF REFUGE: 

By LEVI S. FULTON, Superintendent. 

House of Refuge for Juvenile Delinquents. — A Description of the 
Building. — The Act Authorizing the Establishment of such a 
House. — Its Provisions. — How the Institution is Regulated and 
Supported.—When Opened. — Number of Inmates. — How they are 
Employed.— A Reform School and Home. — Suitable Instruction 
and Healthful Recreation Provided for. — Kind and Careful 
Treatment of the Sick, - -. 

NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY: 

By Z. R. BROCK WAY, Superintendent. 

First Legislation jn Relation to the State Reformatory at Elmira.— 
The Construction of the Building. — The Distinctive Feature of 
the Reformatory.—Its Inmates.— System of Treatment Adopted.— 
Its Definite Purpose.—Results of Five Years Summarized.—Board 
of Managers, -. 

BIOGRAPHIES: 

SAMUEL CAMPBELL, President of the Board of Trustees, New York 

State Lunatic Asylum,. 

JOHN P. GRAY, M. D., LL. D., Medical Superintendent, New York State 

Lunatic Asylum, -. 

STERLING G. HADLEY, President of the Board of Trustees, Willard 

Asylum for the Insane,.. 

JOHN B. CHAPIN, M. D., Medical Superintendent, Willard Asylum for 

the Insane, - . ... 

JOSEPH M. CLEAVELAND, M.'D., Medical Superintendent, Hudson River 

State Hospital, - .. 

FRANCIS H. ROOT, President of the Board of Managers, Buffalo State 
Asylum for the Insane, ---------- 

JUDSON B. ANDREWS, M. D., Superintendent, Buffalo State Asylum 

for the Insane, -. 

FLETCHER HARPER, President of the Board of Trustees, Homceopathic 

Asylum for the Insane, - . 

SELDEN H. TALCOTT, M. D., Medical Superintendent, Homceopathic 
Asylum for the Insane, ----------- 


39 I- 393 


395-397 


400, 401 

357 
357 , 358 
361 
361 

363 

366 

367 

37i 

3 7h 372 












CONTENTS. xxix 

BIOGRAPH I ES — Continued : 

GEORGE W. DUNN, President of the Board of Trustees, Binghamton 

Asylum for Chronic Insane, -. 374 

THEODORE S. ARMSTRONG, M. D., Superintendent, Binghamton Asylum 

for Chronic Insane,. 374 

AUGUSTUS SCHELL, President of the Board of Managers, New York 

Institution for the Blind,.376,377 

WILLIAM B. WAIT, Superintendent, New York Institution for the 

Blind, .. 377 

LOYD A. HAYWARD, President of the Board of Trustees, State Insti¬ 
tution for the Blind, .. 382 

ALBERT D. WILBOR, D. D., Superintendent, State Institution for the 

Blind,. 382 

ISAAC L. PEET, LL. D., Principal, Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, 386 

WILLIAM PORTER, M. D., Superintendent and Physician, Institution 

for the Deaf and Dumb,. 386 

ALLEN MUNROE, Secretary and Treasurer of the Board of Trustees, 

New York Asylum for Idiots,.389,390 

H. B. WILBUR, M. D., Superintendent, New York Asylum for Idiots, - 390 

JOHN A. WEEKES, President of the Board of Managers, New York 

House of Refuge, -.- - 394 

ISRAEL C. JONES, Superintendent, New York House of Refuge, - - 394 

WILLIAM N. SAGE, President of the Board of Managers, Western House 

of Refuge,. 398 

LEVI S. FULTON, Superintendent, Western House of Refuge, - - 399 

JOHN I. NICKS, President of the Board of Managers, New York State 

Reformatory,. - 402 

Z. R. BROCKWAY, General Superintendent, New York State Reformatory, 402 


SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS’ HOME. 


Designed for the Destitute Sick and Wounded Soldiers and Sailors of the 
Empire State.—When Opened. — Incorporated through the Personal 
Efforts of General Henry A. Barnum. — Its Site.— Buildings of the 
Home Described. — The Number of Inmates. — Board of Trustees.— 

Officers of the Institution,. 403,404 

BIOGRAPHIES: 

HENRY WARNER SLOCUM, President, Board of Trustees. - - - 404,405 

ISAAC F. QUINBY, Vice-President, Board of Trustees. .... 406 

THOMAS GAMBLE PITCHER, Superintendent,. 407 

JONATHAN ROBIE, Secretary and Treasurer,. 407 













XXX 


CONTENTS. 


THE PORT OF NEW YORK. 


The City of New York Described. — Its Harbor. — Its Situation Peculiarly 
Favorable to the Growth of Commerce. — Origin of the Port of New 
York. — The Trade of New York. — Commerce of the Colonies. — Pen 
Picture of the Port of New York. — Extension of Commerce. — A Cus¬ 
tom-house Established. — The First Collector of the Port of New York.— 
What is Included in the Port of New York. — Piloting. — Captain of 
the Port and his Assistants. — Their Duties. — Total Exports from the 
Port of New York from the 4TH of March, 1789, to the 31ST of Decem¬ 
ber, 1807. — First Successful Application of Steam to Navigation. — The 
first Steamboats built. — When Steam came into General Use for 
the Coasting Trade. — The Expense of Improving Navigation. — Amount 
Expended by the United States Government for the Port of New York.— 
The first Steamer to Cross the Atlantic. — Steam Navigation on the 
Ocean Successfully Inaugurated. — An Epoch of Remarkable Growth in 
the Commercial History of the Port of New York. — Its Present Immense 


Commercial Importance,. 408-423 

BIOGRAPHIES: 

CHESTER S. COLE, Captain of the Port of New York, - 423 

WILLIAM M. SMITH, M. D., Health Officer of the Port of New York, 424 


QUARANTINE. 

By Dr. WILLIAM M. SMITH, Health Officer of the Port. 

The First Quarantine Law of the Colonial Legislature. — Ports from which 
Vessels were to be Subjected to Quarantine. — Location of a Quaran¬ 
tine Hospital on Governor’s Island. — A new Quarantine on Staten 
Island.— Health Officer Appointed. — Board of Health for New York 
City. — Epidemics of Yellow Fever. — Commissioners of Quarantine 
Appointed. — Swinburne Island Hospital. — Brief Description of the 
Establishment. — Generous Provisions made by the State of New York 


for Quarantine Purposes. — Residences of the Health Officer and his 
Deputies,.-.- 425-428 

BIOGRAPHIES: 

THOMAS C. PLATT, President of the State Board of Quarantine Com¬ 
missioners, .. 429 

DAVID W. JUDD, Commissioner of Quarantine,. 429,430 

JOHN A. NICHOLS, Commissioner of Quarantine,. 430 





CONTENTS. 


IMMIGRATION. 

By H. I. JACKSON. 

Immigration of Europeans to the United States.—The Number who have 

FOUND THEIR WAY TO THESE SHORES FROM 1776 TO THE PRESENT TIME. — THE 

Number who have Entered at the Port of New York. — Ship Fever.— 
Fraud and Extortion Practiced on Immigrants. — Legislation for their 
Redress. — The Board of Commissioners of Emigration of the State of 
New York Organized.— Members of the First Board of Commissioners.— 
Evils to a Great Extent Remedied. — Description of the Reception and 
Care of the Immigrants at the Present Time.—The Immigration to the 
Port of New York in i 88 i ,. 

PRESENT BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS,. 

BIOGRAPHY: 

HENRY A. HURLBUT, President of the Board of Commissioners of 
Emigration, ---------. 


THE CANALS. 

By HORATIO SEYMOUR, Jr. 

CHAPTER I. — Inland Lock Navigation Companies.—General Philip Schuy¬ 
ler.— Elkanah Watson.— Canal at Little Falls. —Wooden Locks.— 
Canal at Rome. — Brick Locks. — Mistakes of the Companies. — Failure 
of Inland Lock Navigation Companies Due to the Commencement of the 
Erie Canal, - - -.. 

CHAPTER II. —Gouverneur Morris. —His Efforts in Behalf of the Erie 
Canal.— James Geddes. — Joshua Forman. — His Election to the Legis¬ 
lature._Jesse Hawley.— Forman Resolutions. — Benjamin Franklin 

makes a Survey for a Canal to Connect Chesapeake and Delaware 

Bays._Judge Benjamin Wright.—Survey for Canal Ordered. — James 

Geddes makes the First Survey for Erie Canal. — Joseph Ellicott.— 
Irondequoit Embankment. — De Witt Clinton. — Canal Commissioners 
Appointed._Their Trip to Lake Erie. — First Report of the Commission¬ 
ers._Opposition to the Canal.—War of 1812. — Canal Postponed.—Gen¬ 

eral J. Rutsen Van Rensselaer. — Passage of Act Authorizing the 
Construction of the Canal. — Financial Policy. — George Tibbits. — Lot¬ 
teries.— Aid from Ohio, -. 


xxx i 


43 L 432 
432 

433 , 434 


435-439 


439-448 





XXX11 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER III. — Building of tiie Erie Canal. — First Contractors. — Diffi¬ 
culties Encountered. — Completion of the Middle Section. — First Trip 
from Utica to Rome. — Celebration at Salina. — Inventions.— Comple¬ 
tion of the Champlain Canal in September, 1823. — Completion of the 
Erie Canal from Albany to Buffalo in October, 1825.—Description of 
the Canal. — Its Length and Cost. — Labors of the Commissioners. — 

Their Method of Paying the Contractors. — Discovery of Hydraulic 
Cement. — Laborers on the Canal.—Jiggers of Whisky. — Ceremonies 
at the Completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, ------ 449-457 

CHAPTER IV.— Growth of the Country after the Building of the Erie 
Canal. — Navigation on the Canals.— Packet-Boats. — Competition with 
Railroads. — Description of Voyage on a Packet, by Duke of Saxe 
Wiemar. — Enlargement. — Panic of 1837. — Stop-Law.—Constitution of 
1846. — State Aid to Railroads. — Their Competition with the Canal.— 
Abolishing Toll on Railroads. — Constitutional Amendments of 1876, - 457-467 

CHAPTER V. — Future of the Erie Canal. — Competition of Mississippi and 
other Routes.— Methods of Cheapening Transportation on American 
Water routes. — Deeper Water-way. — Free Canal. — Future. — Auto- 
grappi Letter from the Hon. Horatio Seymour, Ex-Governor of New 
York, Commending tpie Enlarged and Liberal Policy of the People of 
New York State in Making the Canals Free, ------- 468-474 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 

By STEPHEN C. HUTCHINS. 

CHAPTER I. — First Use of Rails as a Bed for Cars in 1676, at the Col¬ 
lieries near Newcastle, England; Rude Wooden Structures, with Carts 
drawn by Horse Power.— Introduction and Improvement of Iron Rails.— 

Steam Carriages Introduced; Trevithick: Evans; Blenkinsop; Stevens; 

Hadley and “ Puffing Billy ; ” George Stephenson. — First Passenger 
Railway in England.— First Charter for a Passenger Railway in the 
United States: the Mohawk and Hudson. — History of its Construc¬ 
tion. — Possibility that it might Reduce the Tolls on the Erie Canal ; 
a Clear Gift of Prophecy. — Its Early Struggles. — Early and Remark¬ 
able Movement in Massachusetts to Secure a Western Railroad.— 
Cooperation of New York. — First Locomotives in America. — First 
Trips on the Mohawk and Hudson.— The Road Formally Opened.— The 
State Electrified,. 475-484 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER II. — Albany: “The Net.” — A Center of Railroad Enterprise.— 
Saratoga and Schenectady Railroad. — Convention at Syracuse. — It 
Favors the Construction of a Passenger Railroad, and the Payment by 
it of Canal Tolls. — Troy Builds a Northern Road.—-Movements in 
North-western New York.—Albany and Troy Unite in Building Roads 
to Rutland.—Construction of the Schenectady and Utica Railroad.— 
Massachusetts Seeks Communication with the Hudson River. — Enter¬ 
prise of the Village of Hudson. — Activity of Albany. — Its Advantages 
as a Railroad Center.—Success of the Troy and Ballston Road.— 
Albany Alarmed at the Success of Troy, and the Aggressiveness of 
Hudson and Catskill.—Union of Troy and Albany with Regard to the 
Massachusetts Road. — Progress of the Central Line.—The Boston, 
Hudson and Catskill Route.—The Albany and West Stockbridge Road.— 
Opening of the Syracuse and Utica Railroad. — Completion of the Line 
from Albany to Boston. — Failure of the Catskill Project. — Completion 
of the Line from Boston to Buffalo,. 

CHAPTER III. — New York City seeks a Railroad Connection with the 
Boston and Buffalo Line.— Efforts to Build an Interior Road from 
New York to Albany. — The Long Island Railroad and the Sea-board 
Route. — Northern New York and the New England System. — The New 
York and Erie Railroad ; Its Early Embarrassments, Construction to 
Goshen, and Successful Reorganization. — Aid to Crippled Roads. — 
Increase in the Assessed Valuation of the State. — Rapidity of Rail¬ 
road Growth in New York. — The Telegraph. — Railroad from New York 
to New Haven. — Construction of the Hudson River Railroad. — Pro¬ 
gress of the Erie.—Opening of a New Line to Buffalo. — Completion 
of the Erie, Hudson River, and Harlem Railroads. — Business Area of 
the City of New York. — Completion of the Central Line of Road.— 
Business of the Roads of the State and United States in 1851. — Tolls 
on Freights; their Imposition and Release.—Special Charters, and the 
General Regulation of Railroads,. 

CHAPTER IV. — Improvements in Railroad Construction. — Stone Road-beds 
Abandoned. — The Longitudinal Sill and Flat Rail Prove a Failure.— 
Adoption of the Existing Form of Road-beds. — Perfection of the Frame 
and Running-gear of Engines. — Improvements in Cars and Car-wheels.— 
Engineering Achievements of the Hudson River and Erie Railroads.— 
Construction of the Hudson and Delaware Canal. — The Telegraph and 
the Railroad. — Origin and Growth of the Express Business. — The 
American Express Company, the United States Express Company, the 
Adams’ Express Company, and the National Express Company.—The Mer¬ 
chants’ Dispatch and Fast Freight Lines,. 

E 


xxxiii 


484-493 


494-506 


507-519 




XXXIV 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER V. — Effect of the Construction of Canals and Railroads - .— Con¬ 
solidation of the Central Roads in this State. — Investments in Plank 
Roads. — Building of New Railroads. — The Revulsion of 1857.— Rail¬ 
roads become Profitable.— New Projects.—Albany and Susquehanna.— 

State Aid. — Revival of Railroad Building. — The Panic of 1873. — Rail¬ 
road Construction Suspended.— Default of Numerous New Roads.— 

Town Bonding System Abolished. — Recovering from the Effects of the 

Panic of 1873. — Railroads Reorganized. — Railroad Building Renewed, 519—531 

CHAPTER VI. — Railroad Systems in the Interior of New York. — The Erie 
Railroad, its Branches and Leased Roads.— The Northern Central of 
Pennsylvania. — The Tioga Railroad Company. — Fall Brook Coal Com¬ 
pany.— Lehigh Valley Railroad Company: its Roads in New York; the 
Southern Central Railroad. — System of the Delaware, Lackawanna 
and Western Railroad Company: Lines from Binghamton to Utica, 

Rome, Syracuse, Oswego, Buffalo and the International Bridge; the 
Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Railroad, from Niagara Falls to 
Rome and North to Watertown, Cape Vincent and Ogdensburg.— Ogdens¬ 
burg and Lake Champlain Railroad.— Railroad System of the Delaware 
and Hudson Canal Company: The Albany and Susquehanna Railroad 
and its Extension; Rensselaer and Saratoga, and New York and Canada 
Railroads; Line to the Hoosac Tunnel. — Construction of the Tunnel.— 

Troy and Boston Railroad Company. — Boston, IIoosac Tunnel and West¬ 
ern Railroad Company. — New England and New York Enterprises.— 

Long Island Railroad System.—The East River Bridge.—Elevated 
Railroads; their Effect upon the Development of the City of New 
York,. 531-544 

CHAPTER VII. — Systems of Transportation in New York, and their Con¬ 
nections.— Central and Hudson River Systems. — Bridges at Albany.— 

Grand Central Depot and the Railroads Centering therein. — Business 
Importance of Buffalo, and its Local Railroads. — The Nickel-plate 
Road. — Low Tolls on the Canals. — The Pacific Railroads. — The Lakes 
as an Extension of the Erie Canal, and the Relation of the Wabash 
System thereto. — The Erie System. — The Reading Company. — Progress 
in Railroad Construction. — Fast Trains.—Railroad Iron and Bessemer 
Steel. — Importance of Steel Rails and Fast Freight Dispatch Lines to 
Cheap Transportation. — Reduction in Freight Charges on Railroads 
and Canals. — Statistics of Central and Erie Roads. — Differential 
Rates, their Advantages and Disadvantages. — Investigation into Rail¬ 
road Management. — Railroad Commission Act. — Magnitude of the Rail¬ 
road Interests of the Commonwealth and Republic. — Necessity for 
Wisdom in Management and Supervision, - 


545-562 



CONTENTS. 


BANKING AND CURRENCY. 

By DANIEL MANNING. 

THE EARLY HISTORY OF BANKING: 

Simplest Representative of Value. — Mint for the Manufacture of 
Small Coin. — First Bills of Credit Issued by New York. — Absence 
of Banks in the Colonies. — Relations of Banks to Governments. — 
Establishment of the First Banks in Europe. — What they were.— 
Relations of Banks to their Stockholders. — Relations of Banks to 
the People.—Necessity for the Organization of Banking Institutions, 

FIRST SPECIE BANKS IN NEW YORK: 

How Banks are Divided.— What they Provide.—Banks of Issue.— Their 
Notes Payable in Coin. — A Uniform Standard.—The Art of Bank¬ 
ing.— Its Common Operations. — First Banks Organized in the United 
States: the Bank of North America; the Bank of Massachusetts; 
Bank of the Manhattan Company. — Financial Troubles. — Sole Finan¬ 
cial Reliance of the Federal and State Governments. — Recommen¬ 
dations of Governor Daniel D. Tompkins. — General Bank Suspen¬ 
sion.— Incorporation of tile Second Bank of the United States.— 
Resumption of Specie Payments,. 

THE SAFETY-FUND BANKING SYSTEM: 

Another Era of Progress.—The Banks a Powerful Factor in Promoting 
the Prosperity of the People. — The Question of Renewing the Char¬ 
ters of Banks. —President Jackson’s Opposition to the Bank of the 
United States. — Establishing a Uniform and Sound Currency.— 
What the Safety-Fund Act Required.—Responsibility of the Banks.— 
The Panic of 1837,.- - 

STATE SUPERVISION. — FREE BANKING: 

Business of Banking in its Relation to the State.— Passage of the Gen¬ 
eral Banking Act.— Its Design.— Suspension of Banks in 1839. — 
Failure among Free Banking Associations in the State. — The State 
of New York Maintains its Credit Inviolate,. 

STATE CREDIT THE BASIS OF BANKING: 

The State Proceeds to Perfect a Banking System. — Substituting the 
Comptroller as the Superintendent of the Banking Institutions of 
the State. — His Duties and Powers. — Liabilities of Stockholders.— 
Improvement in the System of Banking. — Creation of the Banking 
Department, in 1851. — Under the Care of a Superintendent. — Sur¬ 
vey of the Banking Systems in Several of the Other States, 


xxxv 


563-565 


565-572 


572-577 


577-582 


582-586 



XXXVI 


CONTENTS. 


THE CRISES OF 1837 AND 1857: 

The Crisis of 1837 largely due to Overtrading with Foreign Countries.— 
The Immediate Cause for the Suspension of 1857. — Failures of the 
Ohio Life and Trust Company and the Mechanics’ Banking Associa¬ 
tion. — Financial Strength of the Banks of this State in 1837, 1857 
and 1873,. ------ 

THE WAR OF 1861-1865, AND SUSPENSION: 

The Clearing-House System. — Suspension of Banks in December, 1861.— 
Paper Currency. — The National Banks Serve a Good Turn, 

THE PANIC OF 1873, AND RESUMPTION : 

Foreign Demand for Government Bonds in 1865. — Apparent Wealth of 
the Nation. — New Investments. — Over-valuation followed by Over¬ 
production.— Production Curtailed. — A Scarcity of Currency not 
the Cause of the Panic. — The Resumption Act of 1875. —Table 
Showing the Comparative Resources and Liabilities of National, 
State and Savings Banks,. 


INSURANCE. 

By HENRY F. HOMES. 

Oldest Insurance Companies. — Equitable Society of London. — Organization 
of the New York Insurance Department. — Insurance in Great Britain.— 
First National Insurance Convention.—Insurance Literature, 

FIRE INSURANCE: 

Prior to 1835. — Great Fires in New York City, 1835-45. — Temporary 
Depression in Insurance Business. — Formation of the National 
Board of Underwriters.—The Great Chicago Conflagration.—The 
Great Fire in Boston. — Immense Loss to the Insurance Companies.— 
Abstracts of Reports and Legislative Enactments. — “The United 
Fire Underwriters in America.” — Statistics of Fire Insurance in 
the United States. — Requirements of Foreign Companies doing 
Business in New York State.—Table giving the Statistics of the 
Fire Insurance Business in the United States in 1881. —Tables 

SHOWING THE RELATIVE PROGRESS OF THE BUSINESS OF THE NEW YORK 

State Companies and those of other States authorized to do Busi¬ 
ness in New York State for the years i860, 1865, 1870, 1875 and 
1880. — Abstracts from Statements filed in New York Insurance 
Department for the Year ending December 31, 1882, - 


586-588 


588-590 


590-592 


593-595 


596-602 




CONTENTS. 


LIFE INSURANCE: 

Early Development of the Science of Life Contingencies. — Various 
Life Tables. — Foreign Life Insurance. — History of Life Insurance 
in this Country.— Its Active Development. — The Mutual Life.— 
The New York Life. — The Mutual Benefit of Newark, New 
Jersey.— The State Mutual of Worcester, Massachusetts. — The 
Connecticut Mutual of Hartford, Connecticut.—The Penn Mutual 
of Philadelphia. — The National of Vermont.— The Union Mutual 
of Maine. — The Manhattan Life. — The United States Life. — The 
New York Deposit Law. — Development of Scientific Methods in 
the Conduct of Life Insurance Business.—Stupendous Growth of 
Life Insurance Business. — Failures. — Gratifying Records of the 
Life Insurance Business of To-Day. — Statistical Records. — Table 

SHOWING THE COMBINED BUSINESS, AT INTERVALS OF TWO YEARS, OF ALL 

Life Insurance Companies doing Business in New York State, from 
i860 to 1880, inclusive. — Statistics, for 1882, of all Life Insurance 
Companies reporting to the New York State Insurance Department, 

MARINE INSURANCE: 

Its Early History.—Growth of the Business in America since 1809. — 
“Lake Underwriters Association.”—The Geneva Tribunal, and the 
Claims of the Marine Companies. — Table showing the Business of 
the New York Companies in i860, 1865, 1870, 1875, 1880 and 1882.— 
Reports of ten Stock and seven Mutual Marine Insurance Companies 
for 1881. — Table showing the Business transacted in New York 
State by all Insurance Companies of the United States for the 
Year ending December 31, 1882. — Names and Statistics of all For¬ 
eign Marine Insurance Companies doing business in New York State 

FOR THE YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31, 1882, - . 

ADDITIONAL KINDS OF INSURANCE: 

Table showing the Companies Authorized to Transact Insurance Busi¬ 
ness OTHER THAN FlRE, LIFE OR MARINE, IN NEW YORK, AND STATISTICS 
FROM THEIR LAST PUBLISHED REPORTS.— RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF EACH 
Interest. — General Casualty Insurance Law. — “Friendly Societies” 
in Great Britain. — Cooperative or Assessment Companies in the 
United States, -. 

VETERAN NEW YORK COMPANIES: 

Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, -. 

New York Life Insurance Company,. 

Continental Insurance Company of the City of New York, - 

Phenix Insurance Company, - -.- 

Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company,. - - 


xxxv ii 


602-612 


612-615 


615-617 

618, 619 
620-622 
622-624 
624-626 
626-628 





VIEWS. 


THE CAPITOL, -------- .Frontispiece. 

EXECUTIVE MANSION —Exterior, - -. 138 

DRAWING-ROOM, EXECUTIVE MANSION, -.- 138 

EXECUTIVE CHAMBER, ------------ 154 

NEW YORK STATE ARSENAL,.187 

ARMS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, -------- 211 

OLD ARMS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK —two plates, - - - - 212 

OLD SEALS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK —two plates, - 214 

STATE HOUSE,.215 

AUBURN STATE PRISON, ------------ 289 

SING SING STATE PRISON, - .292 

CLINTON STATE PRISON, ------- . 294 

NEW YORK STATE LUNATIC ASYLUM, - .352 

WILLARD ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE, .. 359 

HUDSON RIVER STATE HOSPITAL..362 

BUFFALO STATE ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE,. 364 

HOMOEOPATHIC ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE,.368 

BINGHAMTON ASYLUM FOR CHRONIC INSANE,. 373 

NEW YORK INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND,.375 

NEW YORK STATE INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND,. 378 

INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB,.383 

NEW YORK ASYLUM FOR IDIOTS,.- 387 

NEW YORK HOUSE OF REFUGE, - - - - - 391 

WESTERN HOUSE OF REFUGE, ... -. 395 

NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY,.400 

SOLDIERS’ AND SAILORS’ HOME,. 403 

CUSTOM HOUSE, NEW YORK CITY,.408 

NEW YORK PRODUCE EXCHANGE,. 413 

ERIE CANAL LOCKS, LOCKPORT,.435 

GRAND CENTRAL DEPOT, NEW YORK CITY, ------- 475 

THE LOCOMOTIVE “LION,” ---------- 479 


[ xxxviii ] 


























VIEWS. 


XXXIX 


RAILROAD MAP OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, ------ 545 

INTERIOR OF CAR-HOUSE, GRAND CENTRAL DEPOT, NEW YORK CITY, - 547 

FOUR-TRACK VIADUCT OVER HARLEM FLATS BETWEEN NINETY-EIGHTH 

AND ONE HUNDRED AND TWELFTH STREETS, NEW YORK CITY, - 547 

GRAND SALOON, STEAMER “DREW” — Hudson River People’s Line, - - 549 

THE “ALBANY”— Hudson River Day Line, -. 554 

UNITED BANK BUILDING, NEW YORK CITY, ------- 563 

NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY’S BUILDING, ----- 593 

MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF NEW YORK— Central Office, - 618 

NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY — Interior of Principal Office, - 620 

CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY OF NEW YORK CITY, - 622 



PORTRAITS. 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 

GEORGE CLINTON,. 45 

JOHN JAY,. 45 

MORGAN LEWIS,. 45 

DANIEL D. TOMPKINS,. 45 

DE WITT CLINTON, ----- . 68 

JOSEPH C. YATES,. 68 

MARTIN VAN BUREN,. 68 

ENOS T. THROOP, - . 68 

WILLIAM L. MARCY,. 86 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD,. 86 

WILLIAM C. BOUCK,. 86 

SILAS WRIGHT,. 86 

JOHN YOUNG,. 86 

HAMILTON FISH,. 93 

WASHINGTON HUNT,.-.95 

HORATIO SEYMOUR,. 96 

MYRON H. CLARK,. 98 

JOHN A. KING,. 100 

EDWIN D. MORGAN,.105 

REUBEN E. FENTON, - -. 106 

JOHN T. HOFFMAN,.-.108 

JOHN A. DIX, . no 

SAMUEL J. TILDEN, - 117 

LUCIUS ROBINSON,. 120 

THE EXECUTIVE. 

ALONZO B. CORNELL, Governor,.155 

GEORGE G. HOSKINS, Lieutenant-governor,. 164 

HENRY EDWARD ABELL, Private Secretary,.166 

[xlj 






























PORTRAITS. 


xli 


STAFF OF THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 

FREDERICK TOWNSEND, Adjutant General,. 169 

ROBERT SHAW OLIVER, Inspector-General,.171 

DANIEL D. WYLIE, Chief of Ordnance,. 171 

LLOYD ASPINWALL, Engineer-in-Chief,.175 

HORACE RUSSELL, Judge-Advocate-General,. 175 

WILLIAM H. WATSON, Surgeon-General,.175 

CHARLES P. EASTON, Quartermaster-General,. 175 

JACOB W. HOYSRADT, Paymaster-General,.180 

CHARLES J. LANGDON, Commissary-General of Subsistence, - 180 

ALFRED C. BARNES, General Inspector of Rifle Practice, .... X 8o 

JAMES M. VARNUM, Aide-de-Camp, . jgo 

HENRY M. WATSON, Aide-de-Camp,.^3 

FRANCIS N. MANN, Jr., Aide-de-Camp,. 183 

CHARLES S. FRANCIS, Aide-de-Camp,.183 

JOHN T. MOTT, Aide-de-Camp, -.- ^3 

JOHN S. McEWAN, Assistant Adjutant-General,.185 

FREDERICK PHISTERER, Acting Assistant Adjutant-General, ... 185 

JOHN B. STONEHOUSE, Acting Assistant Adjutant-General, .... 185 

THE MILITIA. 

ALEXANDER SHALER, Major-General, Commanding the First Division of 

the National Guard of the State of New York,.198 

JAMES JOURDAN, Major-General, Commanding the Second Division of the 

National Guard of the State of New York, -. 198 

JOSEPH B. CARR, Major-General, Commanding the Third Division of the 

National Guard of the State of New York,.- 198 

WILLIAM F. ROGERS, Major-General, Commanding the Fourth Division of 

the National Guard of the State of New York, ------ 198 

WILLIAM G. WARD, Brigadier-General, Commanding the First Brigade of 

the National Guard of the State of New York,.204 

LOUIS FITZGERALD, Brigadier-General, Commanding the Second Brigade of 

the National Guard of the State of New York, ------ 204 

CHRISTIAN T. CHRISTENSEN, Brigadier-General, Commanding tpie Third 

Brigade of the National Guard of the State of New York, - - - 204 

WM. H. BROWNELL, Brigadier-General, Commanding the Fourth Brigade of 

the National Guard of the State of New York,. 204 

T. ELLERY LORD, Brigadier-General, Commanding the Fifth Brigade of the 

National Guard of the State of New York,.208 

F 





xlii 


PORTRAITS. 


SYLVESTER DERING, Brigadier-General, Commanding the Sixth Brigade of 

the National Guard of the State of New York,. 208 

DWIGHT H. BRUCE, Brigadier-General, Commanding the Seventh Brigade of 

the National Guard of the State of New York,. 208 

JOHN CARD GRAVES, Brigadier-General, Commanding the Eighth Brigade of 

the National Guard of the State of New York, ------ 208 

THE SECRETARY OF STATE. 

JOSEPH B. CARR, Secretary of State,.- 219 

ANSON S. WOOD, Deputy Secretary of State,. 246 

THE COMPTROLLER. 

JAMES W. WADSWORTH, Comptroller, 1880-81, . 227 

IRA DAVENPORT, Comptroller, 1882-83, . 228 

HENRY GALLIEN, Deputy Comptroller,. 2a6 

THE TREASURER. 

NATHAN D. WENDELL, State Treasurer, 1880-81, . 231 

ROBERT A. MAXWELL, State Treasurer, 1882-83, - . 232 

EDGAR K. APGAR, Deputy State Treasurer, ------- 246 

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. 

HAMILTON WARD, Attorney-General, 1880-81, . 237 

LESLIE W. RUSSELL, Attorney-General, 1882-83, . 238 

WILLIAM B. RUGGLES, First Deputy Attorney-General, 1880-81, - - - 246 

CHARLES J. EVERETT, Second Deputy Attorney-General, 1880-81, - - - 246 

JAMES A. DENNISON, First Deputy Attorney-General, 1882-83, - - - 246 

JOHN C. KEELER, Second Deputy Attorney-General, 1882-83, - 246 

STATE ENGINEER AND SURVEYOR. 

HORATIO SEYMOUR, Jr., State Engineer and Surveyor, 1878-81, - - - 243 

SILAS SEYMOUR, State Engineer and Surveyor, 1882-83, ----- 244 

EDWARD DELAVAN SMALLEY, Deputy State Engineer and Surveyor, - - 246 







PORTRAITS. 


xliii 


SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC WORKS. 

SILAS BELDEN DUTCHER, Superintendent of Public Works, - 251 

JAMES D. HANCOCK, Assistant Superintendent of Public Works, - - 251 

WILLIAM V. VAN RENSSELAER, Assistant Superintendent of Public Works, 251 
OSSIAN BEDELL, Assistant Superintendent of Public Works, ... 251 

THE CANAL APPRAISERS. 

WILLIAM J. MORGAN, Canal Appraiser, - . 255 

CHARLES M. DENNISON, Canal Appraiser,. 255 

WILLIAM L. BOSTWICK, Canal Appraiser,.. 255 

De WITT J. APGAR, Clerk of the Board of Canal Appraisers, ... 255 

AUDITOR OF THE CANAL DEPARTMENT. 

JOHN A. PLACE, Auditor of the Canal Department, ------ 268 

EDMUND SAVAGE, Deputy Auditor of the Canal Department, - 271 

PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 

NEIL GILMOUR, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, - 268 

ADDISON A. KEYES, Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction, - - 271 

THE BANKING DEPARTMENT. 

A. B. HEPBURN, Superintendent of the Banking Department, - 268 

JAMES S. THURSTON, Deputy Superintendent of the Banking Department, 271 

THE INSURANCE DEPARTMENT. 

CHARLES G. FAIRMAN, Superintendent of the Insurance Department, - - 268 

JOHN A. McCALL, Jr., Deputy Superintendent of the Insurance Department, 271 




xliv 


PORTRAITS. 


ASSESSMENT AND TAXATION. 

JOHN S. FOWLER, State Assessor,. 277 

JAMES H. WEATHER WAX, State Assessor,.. 277 

C. P. VEDDER, State Assessor,.277 


THE STATE PRISONS. 

LOUIS D. PILSBURY, Superintendent of State Prisons, 1877-82, - 288 

ISAAC V. BAKER, Jr., Superintendent of State Prisons,. 288 

FRANK L. JONES, Agent and Warden of Auburn Prison, - 298 

AUGUSTUS A. BRUSH, Agent and Warden of Sing Sing Prison, - - - 298 

ISAIAH FULLER, Agent and Warden of Clinton Prison,.298 

HENRY L. ARNOLD, State Agent for Discharged Convicts, - - - - 298 

CARLOS F. MACDONALD, M. D., Medical Superintendent of the State 

Asylum for Insane Criminals,.351 


PUBLIC CHARITIES. 

WILLIAM P. LETCHWORTH, President of the State Board of Charities, - 335 

STEPHEN SMITH, M. D., Commissioner of State Charities, First District, - 341 

WILLIAM R. STEWART, Commissioner of State Charities, First District, - 341 

EDWARD C. DONNELLY, Commissioner of State Charities, .... 341 

JOHN J. MILHAU, M. D., Commissioner of State Charities,. 341 

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL, Commissioner of State Charities, - - - 344 

SARAH M. CARPENTER, Commissioner of State Charities, Second District, - 344 

RIPLEY ROPES, Commissioner of State Charities, ------ 344 

JOHN H. VAN ANTWERP, Commissioner of State Charities, Third District, - 344 

EDWARD W. FOSTER, Commissioner of State Charities, Fourth District, - 347 

JOHN C. DEVEREUX, Commissioner of State Charities, Fifth District, - - 347 

SAMUEL F. MILLER, Commissioner of State Charities, Sixth District, - 347 

OSCAR CRAIG, Commissioner of State Charities, Seventh District, - - 347 

CHARLES S. HOYT, M. D., Secretary of the State Board of Charities, - 349 

JAMES O. FANNING, Assistant Secretary of the State Board of Charities, - - 349 


STATE COMMISSIONER IN LUNACY. 

JOHN ORDRONAUX, M. D., State Commissioner in Lunacy, 1873-82, - - 351 

STEPHEN SMITH, M. D., State Commissioner in Lunacy, .351 




PORTRAITS. xlv 

STATE CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. 

SAMUEL CAMPBELL, President of the Board of Trustees, New York State 

Lunatic Asylum,. 357 

JOHN P. GRAY, M. D., LL. D., Medical Superintendent, New York State 

Lunatic Asylum,.357 

STERLING G. HADLEY, President of the Board of Trustees, Willard Asylum 

for the Insane,. 361 

JOHN B. CHAPIN, M. D., Medical Superintendent, Willard Asylum for the 

Insane,. ... 361 

AMASA J. PARKER, Jr., President of the Board of Trustees, Hudson River 

State Hospital,.-. 363 

JOSEPH M. CLEAVELAND, M. D., Medical Superintendent, Hudson River 

State Hospital,.-.363 

FRANCIS H. ROOT, President of the Board of Managers, Buffalo State 

Asylum for the Insane,.- 366 

JUDSON B. ANDREWS, M. D., Superintendent, Buffalo State Asylum for 

the Insane,.366 

FLETCHER HARPER, Jr., President of the Board of Trustees, Homoeopathic 

Asylum for the Insane,.- 371 

SELDEN H. TALCOTT, M. D., Medical Superintendent, Homoeopathic Asylum 

for the Insane, - -.371 

GEORGE W. DUNN, President of the Board of Trustees, Binghamton Asylum 

for Chronic Insane, -. 374 

THEODORE S. ARMSTRONG, M. D., Superintendent, Binghamton Asylum for 

Chronic Insane, - - -.- 374 

AUGUSTUS SCHELL, President of the Board of Managers, New York Insti¬ 
tution for the Blind,. 376 

WILLIAM B. WAIT, Superintendent, New York Institution for the Blind, - 376 

LOYD A. HAYWARD, President of the Board of Trustees, State Institution 

for the Blind,. 3 82 

ALBERT D. WILBOR, D. D., Superintendent, State Institution for the 

Blind, - 3 82 

HENRY E. DAVIES, LL. D., Late President of the Board of Trustees, Insti¬ 
tution for the Deaf and Dumb, - - - - -.3 8 ^ 

ISAAC L. PEET, LL. D., Principal, Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, - 386 

WILLIAM PORTER, M. D., Superintendent and Physician, Institution for 

the Deaf and Dumb, - -. ------ 386 

ALLEN MUNROE, Secretary and Treasurer of the Board of Trustees, New 

York Asylum for Idiots, - - -. 3 8 9 

H. B. WILBUR, M. D., Superintendent, New York Asylum for Idiots, - - 389 


V 

















xlvi 


PORTRAITS. 


JOHN A. WEEKES, President, Board of Managers, New York House of Refuge, 394 
ISRAEL C. JONES, Superintendent, New York House of Refuge, - - - 394 

WILLIAM N. SAGE, President, Board of Managers, Western House of Refuge, 398 

LEVI S. FULTON, Superintendent, Western House of Refuge, - 398 

JOHN I. NICKS, President, Board of Managers, New York State Reformatory, 402 
Z. R. BROCKWAY, General Superintendent, New York State Reformatory, - 402 

SOLDIERS’ AND SAILORS’ HOME. 

HENRY WARNER SLOCUM, President, Board of Trustees, .... 404 

ISAAC F. QUINBY, Vice-President, Board of Trustees, ------ 404 

THOMAS GAMBLE PITCHER, Superintendent,. 404 

JONATHAN ROBIE, Secretary and Treasurer,.404 

THE PORT OF NEW YORK. 

LYMAN F. HOLMAN, President, New York Produce Exchange, - - - 416 

AMBROSE SNOW, President, Board of Trade and Transportation, New York 

City,. --------- 421 

CHESTER S. COLE, Captain of the Port of New York, ----- 424 

WILLIAM M. SMITH, M. D., Health Officer of the Port of New York, - - 424 

QUARANTINE. 

DAVID W. JUDD, Commissioner of Quarantine, -. 429 

JOHN A. NICHOLS, Commissioner of Quarantine,. - 429 

IMMIGRATION. 

HENRY A. HURLBUT, President, Board of Commissioners, - 433 

WILLIAM R. GRACE, Mayor of the City of New York , Ex-officio COMMISSIONER, - - 434 

CARL HAUSELT, President of the German Emigration Society, Ex-officio COMMISSIONER, 434 

JAMES LYNCH, President of the Irish Emigration Society, Ex-officio COMMISSIONER, - 434 

GEORGE J. FORREST, Commissioner, - . 434 

CHARLES F. ULRICH, Commissioner,.. 434 

GEORGE STARR, Commissioner, - -. 434 

CHARLES N. TAINTOR, Commissioner,.434 

JOEL W. MASON, Commissioner,- - . 434 

H. I. JACKSON, Secretary,.434 









PORTRAITS. 


xlvii 


I 

RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 

WILLIAM H. VANDERBILT, President of the New York Central and Hudson 

River Railroad Company,. 476 

JAY GOULD, President of the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway Company, 480 
HUGH J. JEWETT, President of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Rail¬ 
road Company,. 484 

THOMAS DICKSON, President of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, - 491 

SAMUEL SLOAN, President of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Rail¬ 
road Company,. . 494 

AUSTIN CORBIN, President of the Long Island Railroad Company, - - - 500 

WILLIAM BLISS, President of the Boston and Albany Railroad Company, - 507 

C. GODFREY GUNTHER, President of the Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island 

Railroad Company, ------ .512 

NORVIN GREEN, President of the Western Union Telegraph Company, - 520 

JAMES C. FARGO, President of the American Express Company, - - - 531 

ALEXANDER HOLLAND, President of the National Express Company, - 536 

W. W. EVERETT, President of the New Jersey Steamboat Company, - - 550 

JOHN ENGLIS, Vice-President of the New Jersey Steamboat Company, - 551 

WILLIAM H. HAYS, Treasurer of the New Jersey Steamboat Company, - - 552 

S. J. ROE, Captain of the Steamer “Drew,” People’s Line, - 553 

RUSSELL P. CLAPP, Secretary of the New Jersey Steamboat Company, - - 553 

THOMAS POST, Captain of the Steamer “St. John,” People’s Line, - - 553 

ALFRED VAN SANTVOORD, President of the Day Line Steamboat Company, 555 

JOHN D. KERNAN, Railroad Commissioner, - - -. 557 

WILLIAM E. ROGERS, Railroad Commissioner, .558 

JOHN O’DONNELL, Railroad Commissioner, . 561 

BANKING AND CURRENCY. 

LEONARD AMES, President of the Second National Bank, Oswego, - - 564 

GEORGE F. BAKER, President of the First National Bank, New York City, 565 

PATRICK BARRY, President of the Flour City National Bank, Rochester, 566 

WILLIAM A. BOOTH, President of the Third National Bank, New York City, 567 

SIMON L. BREWSTER, President of the Traders’ National Bank, Rochester, 568 
HENRY G. BURLEIGH, President of the Old National Bank, Whitehall, - 569 

GEORGE S. COE, President of the American Exchange National Bank, New 

York City, .' 57 ° 

HENRY W. FORD, President of the National Bank of the Republic, New 

York City, -----. 57 1 







xlviii 


PORTRAITS. 


GEORGE M. HARD, President of the Chatham National Bank, New York City, 572 

SHERMAN S. JEWETT, President of the Bank of Buffalo, - 573 

WILLIAM KEMP, President of the Mutual National Bank, Troy, - - - 574 

WM. H. MACY, President of the Seamen’s Bank for Savings, New York City, 575 

DANIEL MANNING, President of the National Commercial Bank, Albany, - 576 

HENRY H. MARTIN, President of the Albany Savings Bank, - 577 

HENRY MARTIN, President of the Manufacturers and Traders’ Bank, Buffalo, 578 
THOMAS S. MOTT, President of the First National Bank, Oswego, - - - 579 

FRANCIS A. PALMER, President of the National Broadway Bank, New York 

City,. 580 

HENRY PARISH, President of the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company, 581 

D. W. POWERS, Powers’ Banking House, Rochester, ------ 582 

MORTIMER F. REYNOLDS, President of the Rochester Savings Bank, - 583 

PUBLIUS V. ROGERS, President of the First National Bank, Utica, - - 584 

R. G. ROLSTON, President of the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company, New 

York City,.- - - 585 

WM. H. SMITH, President of the Manhattan Company Bank, New York City, 586 

E. G. SPAULDING, President of the Farmers and Mechanics’ National Bank, 

Buffalo,. 587 

CHARLES A. SWEET, President of the Third National Bank, Buffalo, - - 588 

WILLIAM A. THOMSON, President of the Merchants’ Exchange National 

Bank, New York City, - - - 589 

HOSEA WEBSTER, President of the Brooklyn Savings Bank, - 590 

G. G. WILLIAMS, President of the Chemical National Bank, New York City, 591 

D. P. WOOD, President of the Onondaga County Savings Bank, Syracuse, - 592 

INSURANCE. 

ISAAC MUNSON, President of the Agricultural Insurance Company, - - 594 

JAMES M. HALSTED, President of the American Fire Insurance Company, 595 
JAMES M. McLEAN, President of the Citizens’ Insurance Company, - - 596 

GEORGE T. HOPE, President of the Continental Insurance Company, - - 597 

RUSSELL M. LITTLE, President of the Glens Falls Insurance Company, - 598 

BENJAMIN S. WALCOTT, President of ti-ie Hanover Fire Insurance Company, 599 

PETER NOTMAN, President of the Niagara Fire Insurance Company, - - 600 

STEPHEN CROWELL, President of the Phenix Insurance Company, - - 601 * 

EDMUND DRIGGS, President of the Williamsburgh City Fire Insurance 

Company,. 602 

F. S. WINSTON, President of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, - - 603 

MORRIS FRANKLIN, President of the New York Life Insurance Company, - 604 

WILLIAM H. BEERS, Vice-President of the New York Life Insurance Company, 606 

JOHN D. JONES, President of the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company, - 612 







THE 


COMMONWEALTH. 


By ALONZO B. CORNELL, Governor. 

CHAPTER E 


Discovery of Hudson’s River. — Explorations of the Coast of New Netherland. — 
Trade with the Indians. — Charter of Trading Companies. — Purchase of Lands 
from the Indians, and Treaties with them. — West India Company Organized.— 
Local Governments Guaranteed. — Commerce the Principal Vocation.— Manorial 
System Introduced. — Slow Grow t th of the Province. — Reforms Introduced. — 
Immigration of Religious Refugees. 


HE discovery of “The River of the Mountains” by Hendrick Hudson, and 
the settlement of Manhattan island, were owing to the commercial enterprise 
of the United Netherlands. The little round-prowed vessels of the Dutch 
thereafter pushed their way all along the coast from the Connecticut to the Dela¬ 
ware, entering inlets and bays and rivers for purposes of trade with the Indians, 
but no effort was made for several years to colonize the territory claimed by the 
States General as under their jurisdiction. Trading posts, however, were established 
at convenient points, and commerce with the Indians was vigorously prosecuted. 
This continued until 1614, when the States General issued a decree giving to 

discoverers of “ new passages, havens, lands or places.the exclusive right 

of navigating to the same for six voyages.” This general decree remained 

in force only from March 27 to October n, when the United New Netherland 
Company was given by charter the monopoly of the trade to the region “between 
New France and Virginia, being the sea coast between 40° and 45 0 ,” then first 

officially called New Netherland. The charter expired by its own limitation January 
1, 1618. The Dutch claim to the entire New England coast was never insisted 
upon ; but they pressed their right to Long Island sound and adjacent lands, and 
particularly to the Varsche (Fresh Water) river, or Connecticut, which they visited 
exclusively for many years after its discovery by Adrian Block in 1614. Block, 




2 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


upon this voyage, discovered also the great Narragansett bay, and made his way up 
the New England coast as far as the bay of Nahant, which he called “the limit of 
New Netherland.” Cornelis Jacobsen May, the same year, explored the southern 
shore of Long island and the Atlantic coast to Delaware bay. Captain John De 
Witt sailed up the Mauritius (Hudson’s) river, and Hendrick Christaensen established 
the first great trading post upon it, upon Castle island near Albany, naming it Fort 
Nassau, in honor of the family of the Stadtholder. Christaensen was murdered by 
an Indian soon after the completion of Fort Nassau, and was succeeded in command 
of the post by Jacob Eelkens, who removed the trading post to the mouth of the 
Tawasentha (Norman’s kill) in consequence of a freshet on the island in the 
spring of 1618. On the bluff near by was an ancient Mohawk village and burial 
place, called by the natives Tawaesrunshea (place of the many dead). Here was 
executed the first formal treaty of friendship and alliance with the Indians. The 
treaty of Tawasentha was faithfully observed by the Iroquois, Mahicans, Delawares 
and North River Indians who were parties to it. The Dutch always claimed as 
the peculiarity of their title that it rested upon purchase and treaty, and not upon 
conquest. This principle, afterward adopted by the English, had the most far- 
reaching consequences; for it gave them strong color of right, as against any 
other European people, to the territory between the Connecticut and the Delaware, 
and as far west as the power of the mighty Iroquois was recognized. 

For a short time after the expiration of the charter of the United New Nether¬ 
land Company, private vessels prosecuted the fur trade to considerable advantage. 
The twelve years’ truce with Spain — agreed upon at Antwerp, April 9, 1609 — 
expired in 1621. The truce caused the suspension of a project to organize a West 
India Company, suggested in 1604 by William Usselincx, an enterprising merchant 
of Antwerp. This plan of reaping the benefits of commerce and annoying Spain 
was revived at the expiration of the truce. The company was chartered June 3, 
1621, and formally took possession of the country in the spring of 1622. To this 
company was transferred all the functions of government in New Netherland; 
which, in time, placed the supervision of the affairs of the region in the hands of 
the Amsterdam Chamber thereof, or the association of Amsterdam merchants whose 
names were upon the subscription books. The plan for the government of those 
engaged in this commercial enterprise did not contemplate an arbitrary rule over 
them ; but an administration of the laws of the parent country by the authori¬ 
ties provided. These were a Director-General and Council. The company was 
required by its charter to “ advance the peopling of those fruitful and unsettled 
parts,” and it was intended to confer upon the communities thus established local 
governments similar in organization to those existing in the United Netherlands. 
With this understanding, colonies of thrifty Walloons were planted near Albany, on 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


3 


the South river and Long island, and some on Manhattan. The different settle¬ 
ments were first combined under a single government in 1624, by Peter Minuit, 
Director-General. He bought Manhattan island from the Indians for “ the value of 
sixty guilders, ” $24, gold, and purchased Staten island and other places. Ware¬ 
houses were built, miffs erected, Fort Amsterdam begun, and friendly relations with 

the Pilgrim colony at Plymouth established. The commercial character of the 
Province remained unchanged, immigration died away and agriculture received little 
attention. Trade rapidly increased, however, and mariners and merchants were 

delighted. New Amsterdam was constituted a county of Holland by the States 
General. The residents were mainly industrious refugees, who sought here the 
religious liberty denied them at home. 

The manorial system was now introduced, in order to promote immigration. 

A “Charter of Privileges and Exemptions” was issued by the College of Nineteen, 
June 7, 1629, which vested feudal powers in the hands of any member of the 
company who should purchase lands of the Indians and establish a colony in any 
part of New Netherland, except Manhattan. The law of service was applied to 
Patroon and tenant. The former could establish a manorial court, but could not 
institute laws in contravention of those of the Netherlands. He could exact service 
during the time the contract was in force, even if he violated the terms of the 
contract himself. The Patroon of Rensselaerswyck, who was the only one who 
established a manorial court, went so far as to exact of his tenants, as a condition 
to the occupancy of land, that they would not appeal from his decisions. The 
charter prescribed regulations and granted privileges with regard to trade; but 
prohibited the manufacture of cloths, retained the fur trade to the company, and 
fettered commerce. They were required to establish churches and schools, and 
freemen were given all the land they could cultivate, with an exemption from taxa¬ 
tion for ten years. This system gave another impetus to colonization for a time. 

Leading directors purchased enormous tracts of land and seized upon the trade, 

which alarmed the company so that it ordered the Patroons to take partners, 

forbade all trade except with the company, and recalled Minuit, on suspicion of 
favoring the Patroons unduly. 

Troubles with the Indians on the South river followed; and a ludicrously 
incompetent Director, Wouter Van Twiller, brought ridicule upon himself by blus¬ 
tering bravado toward an English vessel which sailed up the river. On the other 
hand, a post was established on the Schuylkill, and Fort Good Hope on the 

Connecticut; the English being held in check in the neighborhood and driven back 
from the South river. Manhattan grew slowly; a substantial church took the place 
of the rude loft in which the devout had worshiped, and the “ staple right ” brought 
a revenue to the town from every passing vessel. Van Twiller’s quarrelsome dispo- 


4 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


sition, the arbitrary features of the manorial system, and the fetters upon commerce 
prevented the growth of the Province, and again it languished. 

Van Twiller was now superseded by Kieft, who corrected some of the abuses of 
the former, and took the government into his own hands. The manorial system 
was materially modified, trade was thrown open, and immigration encouraged. These 
reforms were perfected in 1640, from which year the growth of the Province begins. 
Meantime the Dutch purchased nearly the whole of Long island west of the present 
Suffolk county line, and established settlements in various places. Wherever the 
people settled in sufficient numbers, the company was bound to give them local 
governments, to be appointed - by the Director and Council in accordance with the 
custom in the Netherlands. Nominally the Reformed religion only was to be 
publicly tolerated, but this was a dead letter in practice. The tide of emigration 
from Massachusetts to the banks of the Connecticut river continued to the eastern 
extremity of Long island before 1640, while thereafter refugees from religious perse¬ 
cution in Massachusetts settled at Maspeth and Gravesend, in the western portion 
of the island, and in Westchester county, the lower portion of which had also been 
purchased from the Indians. Refugees came also from Virginia, bringing cherry and 
peach trees and a better method of tobacco culture. These signs were auspicious ; 
but, on the other hand, the trading posts on the Connecticut had become isolated 
by English settlements, and an attempt which was made to exact tribute of corn, 
wampum and furs from the Indians excited them to the point of dangerous fury. 
These were the perils which surrounded the Province in the actual beginning of 
its existence as a settled Commonwealth. 


CHAPTER II. 

Cosmopolitan Character of the Commonwealth.— Dutch Jealousies of the English.— 
Indian Hostilities.— The Twelve Men. — Renewed Troubles with the Indians.— 
The Eight Men. — Subjugation of the Indians. — Taxation without Consent.— 
Director Stuyvesant. — The Nine Men. — Influence of the English. — Burgher 
Governments Established. — Rensselaerswyck. — Independence of the Manor. — 
The Iroquois. — Their Great Power. — Alliance with the Dutch. — English 
Opposition to Stuyvesant. — Declaration of Rights.— Stuyvesant Subdues Swedes 
on the South River. — Indian Outbreak. — Order Restored and Stuyvesant’s 
Supremacy Established. 

The cosmopolitan character of the Commonwealth — Hollanders, Waldenses, 
Huguenots, Walloons, English—has been the secret of its strength from the begin- 




THE COMMONWEALTH. 


5 


rung. The English immigrants had conceded to them greater privileges of local 
self-government than the Dutch inhabitants possessed, which annoyed them greatly; 
and they were irritated at the withholding from them of the privileges possessed by 
their countrymen in the parent home across the sea. The perils which environed 
the infant Province were to be the means of extorting concessions from the energetic 
but avaricious and arbitrary Kieft. The incensed Indians, purchasing arms from the 
traders in defiance of law, were now well fitted to attack the various settlements, 
and a general uprising so alarmed the Director that he called the people together 
for counsel, and selected Twelve Men to assist him in preparations against the 
danger. The President of the Board, David Piet'ersen de Vries, was the most 

sensible man in the Province. He had quieted the Indians on the South river, 
after an outbreak there in 1630, and made a valuable treaty with them. He owned 
extensive property on Staten island, and his people there had been murdered by the 
Indians in consequence of Kieft’s reckless policy. Regarded as a wise and safe 

counselor, he was selected to hold in check the rash and dangerous Kieft, if possible. 
He could not do it, however, and the most terrible massacres followed, the war 
finally extending above the Highlands. The Twelve Men remonstrated against 

Kieft’s policy, and demanded local governments, whereupon the Board was abolished, 
as being dangerous to his authority. 

It was not long before renewed troubles compelled the Director to again call 
the people together, when a new Advisory Board was appointed, with enlarged 

powers, termed the Eight Men. Cornelis Melyn, a large landed proprietor on 

Staten island, was President of the first Board, appointed in 1643. The second 
Board, appointed in 1645, contained a number of representatives of the new English 
element, including John Underhill, who had become famous by the exterminating 

war against the Pequod Indians, and George Baxter, a leader in the Baptist colony 

at Gravesend. This Board displayed great energy alike in the field against the 
Indians, and in council against Kieft, Underhill being the leader in war, and Melyn 
and Baxter around the council board. The energetic prosecution of the war resulted 
in the final subjugation of the Indians, but during its progress the fort on the Con¬ 
necticut became a mere nominal outpost, and the Swedes planted themselves on the 
South river. These disasters on the frontier of the Province, however, were slight 
compared with the devastation of the war at the center. While sixteen hundred 
savages were killed, every Dutch settlement except Rensselaerswyck and the post on 
the South river was attacked, and many were destroyed. Scarcely a hundred settlers 
were left upon Manhattan, and not more than three hundred men capable of bearing 
arms could have been mustered throughout the Province. A day of thanksgiving 
for the ending of the terrible conflict was held on the 6th of September, 1645, and 
the people turned with new courage to their vocations. 


6 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


The opposition to Kieft was as successful as the war against the Indians. 

During the progress of hostilities the Eight Men were in constant collision with the 

Director. Among the subjects of controversy was the power of taxation, which 
the Eight Men claimed inhered in them, and which they exercised for a time. 
Kieft and the Council, however, finally imposed taxes against their consent, thus 

completing the roll of grievances against him. The People demanded his recall, and 
the constitution of local governments authorized to send deputies to meet with the 
Director and Council; and the demand was complied with. In the towns of the 
Netherlands, the Eight Men were representatives of the Guilds, who had obtained 

for them a share in the voting of taxes; and the denial of this right was not 
approved by the home government, for the principle of no taxation without repre¬ 
sentation was recognized as fundamental in Holland as early as 1477, by the charter 
called the Great Privilege, extorted from the Duchess Mary. 

Stuyvesant, who succeeded Kieft, was warmly welcomed by the Dutch. He not 
only disappointed but angered them by taking the part of Kieft as against Kuyter and 
Melyn, two of the Eight Men, who had preferred charges against the late Director. 
A prolonged and bitter controversy followed, in which the burghers became arrayed 
against the new Director-General, and he felt compelled to turn to the English for 
support. Stuyvesant ruled with a strong hand, but doubtless with sincere desire 
to promote the material well-being of the Province. He was imperious by nature, 
distrusted the people, and was of the opinion that only arbitrary power would answer 
in the government of such a heterogeneous mass as..composed the Province of New 
Netherland. He found, however, that the people would not submit to being taxed 
without their consent, and he therefore established an Advisory Board of Nine Men. 
In controversies with his English neighbors over the boundaries he quarreled 
unnecessarily; and he then further complicated the trouble by appointing two 
Englishmen as boundary commissioners, greatly to the disgust of the burghers. 
One of these commissioners, George Baxter, had been his English secretary, and 
the other was a merchant of Plymouth named Thomas Willett. His susceptibility 
to English influences increased his unpopularity; and his persistent denial of burgher 
governments of the Dutch model made him appear to them as a despot more dan¬ 
gerous than Keift because more able. Appeals to Holland, however, resulted in 
the success of the people ; it was directed that burgher governments be established, 
and the boundary negotiated was not approved, on the ground that it conceded too 
much in giving away most of Long island and even a part of the present county of 
Westchester. 

The Director-General was further embarrassed by the claim of the agent of the 
Van Rensselaers that the manor constituted an independent principality. This 
manor had been purchased by Kiliaen Van Rensselaer in 1630. It extended over 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


7 


considerable territory on both sides of the river in the vicinity of Albany; Fort 
Orange only being reserved to the West India Company. Surrounding Fort Orange 
was a village of about one hundred houses, called Beverwyck ; the Mohegan name 
of the place being Pem-po-ta-wuth-ut , or “pla.ce of fire” —a council ground. This 
village covered the present business portion of Albany; and north of it was the 
Colonie, the seat of the Patroon of Rensselaerswyck, whose estate covered an area 
of almost one thousand square miles. This estate was in charge of Brant Arent 
Van Slechtenhorst, as manager or commissary, Director of the Colonie and President 
of the Court of Justice, who came over in 1647, the same year that Stuyvesant 
arrived. The old Patroon had died, and Van Slechtenhorst had been commissioned 
by the guardians of the son and heir, Johan Van Rensselaer; and the Commissary 
was determined to maintain the independence of the manor. The opportunity of 
testing the question was soon presented. The Director proclaimed a fast which 
the Commissary declined to keep. Stuyvesant thereupon visited Fort Orange, and 
directed that certain houses should be pulled down for the purpose of defense 
against the Indians, and that stone and timber should be taken from the Patroon’s 
lands for the purpose of repairing the fortifications. The Commissary prevented 
the execution of both orders, although the Director sent a squad of soldiers to 
Fort Orange to enforce them. The controversy over the question of jurisdiction, 
however, continued for three years, when it was brought to a crisis. The Director- 
General issued a call for a subsidy from Rensselaerswyck, and the Commissary went 
to New Amsterdam to remonstrate with him, when he was arrested and detained 
four months, at the end of which time he escaped and returned to the Colonie in a 
sloop. About the same time, Jean Baptiste Van Rensselaer, the first of the name 
who came to America, appeared at Beverwyck and was elected one of its magistrates ; 
and very soon after, the inhabitants of the manor were required to take the oath of 
allegiance to the Patroon or his representatives. The Amsterdam Chamber censured 
the Patroon, but the practical independence of the manor was maintained. 

The inhabitants of Rensselaerswyck lived on the most friendly terms with the 
Iroquois. Philip Pietersen Schuyler, son-in-law of Van Slechtenhorst, was the Indian 
Commissioner of the manor, and the scrupulous honor with which he fulfilled this 
engagement secured their confidence, and his kind treatment won their affection. He 
became prominent in 1655 as a delegate from Albany to a convention held with the 
Mohawks, and assisted in inaugurating the policy which was steadily pursued with 
them thereafter, and which met with the most gratifying results. These friendly 
relations ripened into an alliance as firm and important as any alliance between 
European nations. The Iroquois were a powerful confederacy. The Indians on the 
Susquehanna, Delaware, Hudson and Connecticut rivers, on Long island and the 
northern shore of the sound, were tributary to them ; they made military excursions 


8 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


to the south by a war-path along the borders of the Allegheny mountains, held the 
New England Indians in awe by their hostile expeditions, and enforced their 
supremacy upon the Eries, Andastes and Miamis of the west. They were an agri¬ 
cultural people, growing large orchards and cultivating extensive fields, and were 
sometimes called Konoshioni —“cabin-builders.” It was their boast: “ We are born 
free,” and they called themselves, Aquarius he hioni —“united people.” 

The tendency of events on Long island was inauspicious for Stuyvesant, who 
not only failed to secure the support of the Dutch, but alienated the English towns. 
The municipal rights of the people had been secured in 1653, after long agitation 
under the leadership of Adriaen Van der Donck, and the time had come for 
cementing the towns in common fellowship, when rumors were industriously circulated 
on both sides of the Sound that the Dutch and the Indians were plotting a war 
against the English. The mischief-makers, working in the interest of Connecticut, 
tried to enlist Massachusetts in a war upon New Netherland, but failed. The Provi¬ 
dence Plantations, however, were eager for strife, taking advantage of the war between 
the English Commonwealth and the United Netherlands, declared war against New 
Netherland, and commissioned John Underhill in their service. Underhill, who had 
created some disturbance on Long island, had been arrested by Stuyvesant and 
banished. He soon gathered twenty men, and took possession of Fort Good Hope, 
on the Connecticut (then empty), which ended the war on his part; while, upon the 
seas, Thomas Baxter captured two or three Dutch vessels and as many more English 
ones. 

This farcical war was succeeded by a movement of a more serious character. 
The English towns, disgusted with Stuyvesant and alarmed about the Indians, made 
common cause with the Dutch towns, and held a convention for the purpose of 
asserting their rights, which were vigorously set forth in petitions__and remonstrances 
written by Baxter. Simultaneously, Connecticut and New Haven again became 
greatly agitated over the reports of an Indian war on Long island, and took steps 
to raise a force against New Netherland. The hostile movement was brought to an 
end by the conclusion of peace between England and Holland, in May, 1654, New 
Netherland losing all except its nominal possessions on the Connecticut. The effect of 
hostilities, however, was disastrous upon the cause of popular rights in New Nether¬ 
land, as the home government identified opposition to Stuyvesant with treasonable 
hostility to Dutch authority, and blamed the Director for having been too lerwent; 
instead of conceding the popular demands, as in former cases. Baxter fled, but 
returned, and was arrested in the act of raising the English flag at Gravesend. 

Stuyvesant then turned his attention to the South river, and overthrew the 
Swedish rule there. During his absence there occurred a terrible Indian war, which 
he finally succeeded in suppressing, upon his return. Again and again, however, 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


9 


hostilities broke out with the Esopus Indians, which were only prevented from being 
destructive of the Colony by the fidelity of the Iroquois to their agreements with 
Rensselaerswyck. 

The Director, having reduced the Province to subjection, and obtained from the 
Patroon the concession of a fixed subsidy in wheat, undertook to enforce religious 
conformity, bitterly persecuting the Lutherans, Baptists and Quakers, for which he 
was rebuked by the home government. 

New Netherland had now reached what appeared to be the hard ground of sure 
prosperity. Peace prevailed, people of various nationalities sought its jurisdiction, 
and wealth gradually increased. One of the latest coveted rights which the people 
secured was the right to import slaves, of which the Company had long enjoyed a 
monopoly. Concessions of a more valuable character would doubtless have followed, 
if renewed disturbances with the English had not occurred, for the spirit of the home 
government had been one of sympathy with conservative progress, and of support of 
the People rather than of the Directors. 


CHAPTER III. 


Accession of Charles II. — Condition of New Netherland. — Unity and Prosperity 
of the People. — Complications Surrounding Stuyvesant. — Scott’s Temporary 
Government. — Commotions of the Peoples’ Representatives. — Scott’s Rebellion 
Suppressed. — Connecticut’s Aggressions. — Grant to the Duke of York. — 
Stuyvesant Surrenders. — Liberal Terms Granted. — Arbitrary Governments 
Established. — General Assembly Conceded. — The Charter of Liberties. — 
Accession of William and Mary. — Proceedings in the Colony. 

The condition of New Netherland at the accession of Charles II in 1660 was 
that of a disjointed province, the heterogeneous elements of which were held 
together loosely by the force of circumstances and the will of one man, but which 
needed only wise statesmanship to combine under one popular government. The 
people were one in spirit, although of various nationalities, caring little or nothing 
either for England or Holland as such, but determined upon the possession of their 
own rights. They looked with favor upon any sovereignty which promised to 
enlarge their liberties, and detested Stuyvesant because he hated popular rule. The 
trade of New Amsterdam was increasing, and its commercial prosperity gave satis¬ 
faction. The towns upon Long island were of mixed English and Dutch popula- 


* 


2 




IO 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


tions, whose agricultural interests flourished in connection with the commerce of the 

7 o 

port, and whose inhabitants lived in full fellowship with each other, bound by a 
community of interest in comparison with which the natural antagonisms arising 
from differences of origin were trivial in importance. The English kept crowding 
in upon Long island and the mainland above Manhattan, fleeing from Puritan 
oppressions, and were ready to welcome protection from any quarter. The Dutch 
settlers were 'contending with Stuyvesant for an enlargement of their liberties. The 
Esopus Indians continued troublesome. Rensselaerswyck, which asserted a quasi 
independence, maintained amicable relations with the powerful Iroquois, by whose 
aid the French were kept in check. Massachusetts established settlements on the 
upper Hudson, and claimed the right to navigate the river in order to reach them. 
Upon the South river, commerce decayed, agriculture failed, and complications arose 
with Lord Baltimore, who claimed jurisdiction. Stuyvesant maintained the appear¬ 
ance of power by his energy and imperious will, and his judgment carried him 
through grave crises ; but he lacked the organizing genius of the statesman, and was 
crippled by the fact that the Province was regarded by the West India Company as 
a burden, in consequence of the cost of governing it. New Netherland was thus 
ready for a broader sovereignty, when the renewal of war between England and 
Holland gave occasion therefor. 

Charles II consolidated the region around Long Island sound, with all northern 
New Netherland, under letters patent, issued on the application of the General 
Court of Hartford, which had hastened to acknowledge him. This added a new 
complication to the situation. The English towns on Long island were mainly com¬ 
posed of Baptists, Quakers and other dissenters, who revolted at the idea of again 
coming under the rule of Puritan New England. They had successfully resisted the 
claim of Connecticut to jurisdiction over them, and obtained such large concessions 
from Stuyvesant as to secure a q 7 iasi independence to their ^townships. The leader 
of this movement against Connecticut and the Dutch alike was John Scott. He 
now returned from England bringing the intelligence that the King had granted all 
Long island to the Duke of York. He exhibited a commission issued to himself, 
George Baxter and Samuel Maverick, a Boston merchant, giving them considerable 
powers of organization, and a temporary government was constituted with Scott as 
President, which immediately began aggressions upon the Dutch towns. 

Stuyvesant’s condition was now critical, and he was very despondent. The 
Esopus Indians renewed hostilities; the West India Company, which had transferred 
the South river to the city of Amsterdam, left New Amsterdam and its dependent 
towns to their fate, and the people had no confidence in him. They were, however, 
called together in convention, in February, 1664, when they addressed a remon¬ 
strance to the Amsterdam Directors, setting forth the defenseless condition of the 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


11 

Province. They were again convened in April following. All the Dutch towns, with 
the manor of Rensselaerswyck, were represented in this convention, which assumed 
the character and power of a Diet. Jeremias Van Rensselaer was chosen President, 
and in a speech severely denounced Stuyvesant. The Director responded in his own 
defense, and stated that the towns had been called together to provide for their 
own protection. He informed them that the West India Company had expended 
1,200,000 guilders in the government of the Province, over and above the revenues 
it had received therefrom, and asked that they vote supplies for their defense, 
which they did, after some grumbling. The Indian troubles were settled by a new 
treaty of peace. Scott was checked, and compelled to flee to Connecticut, where he 
was arrested for asserting his own authority in defiance of the rightful authority of 
the General Court. The people now hoped for peace, but were again doomed to 
disappointment. 

Connecticut continued to press its claims. Governor Winthrop openly visited 
the English towns, and was even accorded an interview with Stuyvesant and the 
burghers; while Pell bought of the Indians all the country lying between Westchester 
and the North river, including Spuyten Duyvil creek, which the Dutch had purchased 
fifteen years before. Charles, however, had fully determined that neither New 
England nor the Dutch should hold the territory. His grant to the Duke of York 
covered the country from the east side of the Delaware to the west side of the Con¬ 
necticut, with Long island, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard and a large portion of Maine. 
The fleet sent out to enforce the grant arrived off New Amsterdam in September, 
1664. Stuyvesant, who was trying to adjust matters at Fort Orange, hastily returned, 
and sought to offer resistance, even with the meager force at his command ; but he 
was compelled to surrender, in view of the defenseless condition of the Province, by 
the demands of the people. The surrender of New Amsterdam took place on the 
8th of September, 1664, and that of New Orange followed on the 24th. According 
to the terms of the capitulation of New Amsterdam, the Dutch were guaranteed the 
protection of life and property, religious liberty, freedom of trade and emigration, the 
payment of the public debt, the inviolability of the laws of inheritance and contracts, 
and a representative government. This they regarded as their Magna Charta. The 
promises were so poorly kept that in 1667 Stuyvesant was sent as an agent of the 
people to the Royal Court, to urge the fulfillment of the treaty. Governor Nicolls, 
however, possessed so much more tact than Stuyvesant, that he settled the affairs of 
the Colony quite satisfactorily, and left it in 1667, generally regretted by the people. 

The true spirit of the Duke of York was exhibited by Lord Lovelace, who 
succeeded Nicolls as Governor, and undertook to force the collection of taxes arbi¬ 
trarily levied, while denying the right of representation. The renewal of the war in 
1672 and the recapture of New Netherland in 1673 was hailed with rejoicing by 


12 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


the people ; but their joy was short lived, for by the treaty of Westminster, entered 
into in 1674, the Province was finally turned over to the English. The tyrannical 
Andros was now sent out as Governor. The right of popular assemblies was 
denied as dangerous to government, and the Duke of York and his Governor 

undertook to establish customs-laws without the consent of the people. A determined 
agitation followed, which so alarmed the Duke, from fear that the Colony would 

become as expensive to him as it had been to the West India Company, that he 
finally conceded a General Assembly. This was held in 1683, and adopted a Charter 

of Liberties so advanced in its declaration of the rights of the people that James 

vetoed it when he became King, and abolished the General Assembly. He also 
entered upon a series of acts, in relation to all the colonial dependencies of 
England, so arbitrary and tyrannical, as to render him justly odious, and to cause 
the accession of William and Mary to be hailed with delight. 

Andros was the originator of the scheme for the consolidation of the northern 
colonies, under one government, and he attempted, by force, to assert his right to 
govern Western Connecticut and East New Jersey. He fully appreciated the Dutch 
policy of maintaining a strong alliance with the Iroquois, and endeavored to further 
develop Albany, and secure for it the monopoly of the Indian trade. Dongan 
also pursued this policy. The tyranny of James, and the efforts of the French to 
win the Iroquois through adroit Jesuit priests, aroused a strong prejudice against the 
Catholics, which was inflamed to white heat by the Revolution in England. On 
the other hand, the wise Indian policy of the government secured for it strong 
supporters in the Council. Andros was again Governor when the uprising in 
behalf of William and Mary took place. He had cemented the alliance with the 
Iroquois, and left the government in the hands of Nicholson, the Lieutenant-Gov¬ 
ernor; but the latter laid it down and prepared to sail, rather than proclaim William 
and Mary. The government was thereupon seized by Jacob Leisler, a merchant and 
captain of the train band, who organized a Council of Safety, and proceeded to 
enforce his usurped power. His authority was denied at Albany, where William and 
Mary were proclaimed independently, and the provisional authority of the Old 
Council only was recognized. Peter, second son of Philip Schuyler, who was the 
first chosen chief magistrate of the city after its incorporation in 1683, and who 
had been appointed Mayor in 1686, still held that office, and as major of the militia 
was in command of the fort. Leisler undertook to succeed Schuyler by his son-in- 
law, Milborne, who proceeded to Albany with an armed force, but was repulsed by 
the Dutch and Indians, who were devotedly attached to Schuyler. The military 
force of the city, at the time of Leisler’s rebellion, consisted of five companies, under 
command of Colonel Nicholas Bayard, a member of the Council. Leisler was senior 
captain, and the revolt was against the commander as well as the Council. He was 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


i3 


a Huguenot, and was very bitter against the Catholics; even driving the liberal 
Governor Dongan from the Colony. 

Leisler was passionate, impulsive and inexperienced. He put on the appearance 
of vigor and sought not only to establish his own authority, but to repel French 
and Indian incursions. When Ingoldesby came out to assume command of the 
military, Leisler refused to surrender the fort to him, because he did not have a 
commission as Governor; but he gave way to Governor Sloughter, a worthless 
fellow, who did have such evidence of his appointment. Sloughter caused the 
arrest of Leisler, Milborne and others, and finally, in a drunken spree, signed the 
death-warrants of Leisler and Milborne. These two ill-advised executions had great 
effect upon the politics of the Colony, for many years. 


CHAPTER IV. 

New York at the Close of the Seventeenth Century. — Growth of Trade. — Preva¬ 
lence of Piracy.— Rural Life. — Religious Liberty. — Social Condition. — Crime 
and Pauperism Little Known.— Management of the Colony. — Ii^licit Trade 
Connived at by Governors. — Their Profligacy. — Reforms Introduced, and 
Arbitrary Power Asserted by Bellomont. — Renewed Corruptions. — Popular 
Party Organized. — Religious Liberty Secured. — The Assembly take Control of 
the Treasury.—Trouble with the French. — Freedom of the Press Vindicated.— 
Popular Government Established. 

The close of the seventeenth century gave something of promise of what New 
York was to become. Trade was the leading vocation of its inhabitants, and the 
port was already the most important one on the continent. The Dutch West India 
Company had built five great storehouses at the end of Manhattan island, and as 
early as 1648 a weekly market was held between the storehouses and the fort. Ten 
years later, shambles appeared on Broadway, and a cattle market was established on 
the strand, where the farmers’ boats landed. In pursuance of the policy of the 
mother government, strangers were excluded from handicrafts, and Dutch customs 
were prevalent. Pirates were sheltered in the little harbors on the Long island 
coast, and preyed upon the unprotected merchant vessels. The interior trade and 
river traffic went on securely, under the liberal policy maintained at Albany. From 
that point, down the Hudson and up the Mohawk, a series of settlements constituted 
centers of trade with the Indians. Furs were bought, taken to Albany and shipped 




H 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


to New York; and light cargoes were brought back in return, consisting chiefly of 
rum, and articles desired by the natives. Agriculture was of secondary consequence. 
The comparatively poor lands on Long island were worked industriously; but the 
rich flats of the Mohawk valley had scarcely been tested. Grist and saw-mills were 
quite frequent, and lumber constituted a considerable industry. 

Religious liberty was, in general, more secure than in any other colony. The 
Dutch made it their boast; and when Stuyvesant persecuted the Quakers and 
Baptists, he was rebuked by the home government. Little charity was shown the 
Catholics, however. The hostile efforts of the French missionaries among the 
Indians, the religious struggles in England,, and the despotism of James II com¬ 
bined to make the Catholics the object of hate, originating in political feuds, and 
extending naturally although illogically to their religion; and it was not until all 
became united in a common struggle for liberty, that the prejudice was overcome. 
The Dutch Reformed and Lutheran churches were the leading denominations; and, 
with the English immigration, Presbyterians grew rapidly in numbers. The pastors 
of these churches were leaders and teachers of the people. The schools were so 
good under the Dutch that pupils were attracted from the south. The school-master 
in New Amsterdam was parish clerk, chorister and visitor of the sick; and, in the 
villages, sexton likewise. There was little crime and less pauperism. Criminals were 
exposed in public, particularly on Long island ; and the stocks, pillory and whipping¬ 
post were in use. Paupers were sold at auction for a number of years, and children 
were sold as apprentices. The General Assembly, in the first year of its existence 
(1691), passed an act requiring all persons without visible means of support to give 
sureties that they would not come on the parish, and directed the towns to make 
provision for the poor. The Dutch were fond of amusements, and festivals and 
holidays were frequent. Altogether, society was free from great vices. The large 
landed proprietors and most extensive traders maintained an aristocratic circle; the 
more common tradesmen and smaller farmers preserved the virtue and the freedom 
of the middling classes, and the lower class was small and gave little trouble. 
Every one drank stimulating beverages. One of the grievances against Stuyvesant 
was, that he imposed excessive excise duties. In 1653, he surrendered the excise on 
beer and wine to the city, conditionally requiring that it should be leased to the 
highest bidder, “after the manner of Fatherland,” and imposed an additional duty on 
wines and distilled liquors, “which,” he said, “are used in this country in the 
greatest profusion.” 

The people had become consolidated in one party by the long struggle for their 
rights; and there was no particular division between them and the more wealthy 
classes, for a community of interest as against Stuyvesant had kept them well 
together. The Leisler movement, therefore, was the only cause of dissension among 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


i5 


them, when Sloughter came with instructions to establish a General Assembly. This 
Assembly re-enacted the Charter of Liberties ; Sloughter died and was succeeded for 
a short time by Ingoldesby, and then Benjamin Fletcher became Governor. He 
undertook to assert his authority in Connecticut, but was baffled. The French 
under Frontenac destroyed the Mohawk villages, but were driven back by Peter 
Schuyler. Fletcher openly sold the pirates licenses, and was even said to have 
shared their spoils; and he connived at smuggling and all manner of illicit trade. 
The taxes and revenues during three years having been about ,£40,000, he was 
requested by the Assembly to account therefor, which he refused to do, saying that 
it was the business of the Assembly to raise the revenue, and of the Governor and 
Council to expend it. The Assembly enacted the revenue bills in such a way as to 
virtually take from the Governor the control of the army, and his profligacy finally 
led to his recall. In the closing year of his administration (1697), the Crown 
vetoed the Charter of Liberties. 

The Earl of Bellomont now (1698) became Governor of New York, Massa¬ 
chusetts and New Hampshire, under the policy of consolidation. His instructions, 
prepared the preceding year, were despotic in their nature. He was given the abso¬ 
lute veto power, the power to institute courts without the assent of the Assembly, 
and the unrestrained power to disburse the revenues. School-masters were required 
to be licensed by the Bishop of London, and printing without the consent of the 
Governor was prohibited. Officers were not to be displaced “ without good and 
sufficient cause,” to be stated in writing, and forwarded to his majesty (William 

III). The people resisted these assumptions of authority with such vigor that the 
Assembly was dissolved in May, 1698, for being “disloyal.” The power of the Gov¬ 
ernor to institute courts of justice was denied by Chief Justice Smith and Attorney- 

General Graham. The purposes of Bellomont, however, were so pure and his 

measures so wise that he secured the confidence of the people. An Assembly was 

chosen which acted in harmony with him. He suppressed piracy, checked frauds, 
provided for an honest collection of the revenue, settled the Leisler troubles, 
restored order and established good government. He died in three years, universally 
lamented. The Lieutenant-Governor was absent when the Earl of Bellomont died, 
and the Council and General Assembly concurred in the opinion that the govern¬ 
ment devolved for the time being upon the Council. This was disputed by William 
Smith, who, being the oldest member of the Council, was ex-officio its President, and 
ad interim the Executive. The popular party sustained Smith, and the government 
party supported the Council. Lieutenant-Governor Nanfan, upon his arrival, approved 
the course of the former, and an Assembly was elected in sympathy therewith. 

A prolonged contest began with the assumption of authority by Lord Cornbury 
as Governor May 3, 1702. He enforced a most arbitrary Tory policy, and his 


16 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


administration was flagrantly profligate and corrupt. He endeavored to enforce 
conformity to the Church of England, and even gave thereto the glebes, parsonages 
and churches of the Presbyterians, who were the objects of his fiercest hate. By 
his instructions, he was required to see that no one preached in the Province, except 
under a license of the Bishop of London, without his, the Governor’s, express 

permission. In 1707, this requirement was violated by Rev. Francis Makemie, a 
Presbyterian clergyman, who was brought before the Governor, and to whom he 
replied: “Your instructions are no law to me." He was indicted, tried and 

acquitted, Chief Justice Mompesson charging the jury that the question was a 
doubtful one. 

The people had demanded for years the appointment of a Treasurer, by the 
General Assembly, as a means to check the profligacy of Governors. This became 
necessary, when Cornbury feloniously appropriated to his own use ^1,500, which 
had been appropriated for fortification purposes by the Assembly. Abraham De 
Peyster was accordingly appointed Treasurer October 19, 1706, by the General 
Assembly, and thereafter had the custody of moneys raised for extraordinary pur¬ 
poses. Cornbury was finally recalled, and was succeeded by Lord Lovelace, who 

died in a few months, when the government devolved upon Richard Ingoldesby, the 
Lieutenant-Governor. The Colony was burdened with debt, which the Governor 
desired to have paid, and the people were harassed by the French Canadians, as a 
natural consequence of the war between France and England, which led them to 
favor an aggressive war. Bills of credit were, therefore, issued for the first time in 
the history of the Colony. Ingoldesby’s commission was revoked September 17, 
1709. He was succeeded, June 14, 1710, by Brigadier-General Robert Hunter, a 
friend of Addison and Swift, and a brave soldier, under whose administration it was 
hoped to establish peace and restore good government. The new Governor had the 
united support of all parties, in prosecuting the war against Canada. A congress of 
Governors was held, and New York issued ^10,000 in bills of credit, but the invasion 
failed. The only credit New York achieved in the matter was a visit by Peter 
Schuyler to England, accompanied by five Iroquois chiefs, resulting in an expedition 
which captured Port Royal, and obtained possession of Nova Scotia. The downfall 
of the English Whigs, the accession of the Tories, the peace of Utrecht, and the 
death of Anne prepared the way for as complete a revolution in New York as in 
England. 

The issues on both sides of the Atlantic were the same. Parliament and the 
General Assembly each struggled to secure the possession of the purse and the sword. 
Success was attained by each. Governor Hunter pursued the traditional policy of 
the Crown, but was sturdily resisted by the General Assembly. His right to 
establish courts and to control the revenues was opposed with such force that he 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


O 

denounced it as rebellious. He succeeded in establishing' a Court of Chancery, with 
himself as Chancellor, but was compelled to abandon the contest over the revenues. 
This left to the General Assembly, as the constitution of the Colony, the exclusive 
control over the revenues, which were collected by its own officers, held by its own 
Treasurer, and disbursed by itself, the Council being denied the right to amend 
money bills, and its existence, as a legislative body, being held to be by grace of 
the Sovereign, and not by right. 

Governor Hunter yielded the first year after the accession of George I, whose 
mild rule was favorable to popular rights in the Colony. He remained for several 
years thereafter, as Governor of the Colony, ruling wisely and well, and leaving it 
in a prosperous condition. He was succeeded by William Burnet, son of the Bishop, 
who strengthened the Indian alliances and established a trading post at Oswego. In 
spite of these advantages, however, he failed, owing to an imperious disposition, and 
unwise policies. He prohibited trade with Canada, which had come to be profitable, 
and enforced the authority of the Court of Chancery. He was succeeded by John 
Montgomerie. During his administration the General Assembly ascertained the 
salaries of all the officers of the government, and increased or diminished the same 
at pleasure, with the approval of the Governor, who removed Lewis Morris, a 
member of the Council, for protesting against this important aggression upon “ the 
rights of the Crown.” This was in 1729. The same year (November 22) Attorney- 
General Bradley wrote to the Lords of Trade that “most of the previous and open 
steps which a dependent Province can take to render themselves independent at their 
pleasure, are taken by the Assembly of New York.” Among these steps he instanced, 
first, that “ they have long struggled for and at last gained their point, viz. : that 
the salaries of all officers of the Crown should be such as they are pleased to vote 
them ; ” second, the custom of the Assembly of connecting with every money bill 
some bill injurious to His Majesty’s prerogative and interest; and, third, that the 
Assembly appoint a Treasurer of its own. The influence of Walpole was still 
supreme at Court, however, and these warnings passed unheeded. 

Governor Montgomerie died after an administration of about three years, when 
the government devolved, for a few months, upon Rip Van Dam, President of the 
Council. Colonel William Cosby arrived in the Colony and assumed the office of 
Governor, by Royal appointment, August 1, 1732. He came out to make money, 
and he at once demanded of Van Dam that he divide with him his salary and per¬ 
quisites. This demand was, of course, refused. An agitation followed, in the course 
of which the New York Weekly Journal , published by Peter Zenger, assailed the 
Governor with such force that the publisher was arrested for libel and thrown into 
prison, where he remained confined thirty-five weeks. Upon the trial, his lawyer, 
Andrew Hamilton, took the ground that the truth was a justification, and the jury 


6 


i8 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


returned a verdict of not guilty. Thus the freedom of the press was established in 
New York, in advance of any other Colony, and of England. Zenger first secured 
as his lawyers William Smith, father of the historian, and James Alexander, father 
of Lord Stirling. Smith and Alexander took exceptions to the commissions of 
Chief Justice De Lancey and Associate Justice Philipse, for which they were 
silenced by the Court. Alexander was excluded from the bar, but was reinstated 
in 1737. 

Cosby died in March, 1736, when Rip Van Dam claimed to be his successor as 
the oldest member of the Council. His last appearance in that body, however, was 
October 14, 1732, and he was formally suspended November 24, 1735. The Council, 
therefore, refused to admit his claim, and recognized the title of George Clarke, the 
oldest member, as President of the Council, and he accordingly issued a proclamation 
March 18, 1736, adjourning the Assembly, which was followed by other proclama¬ 
tions, from time to time, until his authority was established. He was at once 
recognized by the Crown, and was commissioned as Lieutenant-Governor July 30, 
1736. The Colony soon became quiet, and his administration continued successful 
for seven years. He was a good politician, and maintained his authority by making 
concessions with regard to his own prerogatives and the conferring of offices. The 
General Assembly now adopted the custom of limiting the support of the govern¬ 
ment to one year, which had prevailed in Parliament since the first years of the 
Revolution; and, in 1737, by directing in the appropriation bills what sums for 
particular services and what salaries for particular officers by name should be paid, 
took upon themselves the disposal of the money and the nominations of the officers. 
The following year, the rate of interest was reduced by the Assembly from eight to 
six per cent, but the Council increased it to seven per cent. Lieutenant-Governor 
Clarke was succeeded by Admiral George Clinton, as Governor, September 2, 1743. 
Clinton confirmed Clarke’s concessions, and continued his policy until June, 1746, 
when a contest began which was to end with the separation of the Colonies from 
the Crown. 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


19 


CHAPTER V. 


Encroachments upon the Royal Prerogative. — Powers of Governor Transferred to 
the General Assembly. — Unity among the People. — Quarrel between Clinton 

and De Lancey. — The Governor Seeks to Destroy the Power of the Assembly._ 

Restoring the “Ancient Constitution of the Government.” — “ Consent of the 
Whole Legislature” Necessary Thereto. — Sovereignty of the People Recog¬ 
nized. — Lieutenant-Governor De Lancey’s Administration. — French Power 
Destroyed.—Colden’s Accession.—Aggressions against Popular Rights. — Tri¬ 
umph of the People. 


The significance of the encroachments upon the powers of the Governor and 
the prerogatives of the Crown was fully understood by the custodians of Royal 
authority, as is shown by various reports and instructions. It is only necessary here 
to refer to the clause in the report of the Privy Council soon after the appointment 
of Clinton, wherein, after specifying instances, they say that the “ disposing of 
public money by their own authority has been kept up by the Assembly, and such 
encroachments generally made upon the legal prerogative of the Crown that many 
of the more essential powers in the government have been transferred to the 
Assembly.” Indeed, the Colony had been substantially governed by the General 
Assembly from the beginning; and, in the early days of Clinton’s administration, it 
could be truly said, as the Assembly remarked in a remonstrance to the Governor 
in 1747, that “On the memorable day, the 6th of June, 1746, every party concerned 
in the administration were of one mind, and disposed to act as one person.” On 
that day, Governor Clinton and Chief Justice De Lancey quarreled over their cups. 
In a letter to the Lords of Trade December 12, 1746, Governor Clinton said that 
by the method of annexing salaries to the person by name, the Assembly had 
acquired control. Persons disagreeable to the ruling faction “ must starve, to use 
the words that have frequently been made use of on such like occasion.” Thus 
“ the ruling faction has obtained in effect the nomination of all officers, and they 
have become even so insolent that they have, in the bill for the payment of the 
salaries, removed one officer’s name and put in another without consulting me,” and 
the Speaker had ordered the Secretary to make out a commission accordingly. “ By 
these means all the officers of the government are become dependent on the 
Assembly, and the King’s prerogative of judging of the merits of his servants and 
of appointing such persons as he may think most proper is wrested out of the hands 
of his Governor, and the King himself (as far as in their power) deprived of it. 


20 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


The Assembly carries matters in their case to such a length that they call those 
bills for the payment of salaries and other contingencies money bills, to which they 
will not allow the Council to make any amendments, and a Governor must either 
take it as it comes from them, or he and all the officers of the government must 
remain without support/' 

Clinton was a good fighter, but a poor politician. He quarreled with all the 
leading men in the Colony except Cadwallader Colden, whose abject submission 
rendered him acceptable. The Assembly, the Courts, the Commission of Indian 
Affairs, a most important body, were all against him. Philip Schuyler, son of the 
first Mayor of Albany, who was one of the Indian Commissioners, was invalu¬ 
able ; but Clinton did not hesitate to do away with the Board, and to seek to 
deal with the Indians exclusively through Sir William Johnson, whom he made sole 
Commissioner. The Governor contended bitterly for the restoration of his lost 
powers, and the contest was prolonged through the war with Canada, which was 
consequent upon the war between England and France. The Assembly loyally 
supported the war; but the Governor upbraided them for refusing to put the 
money in his hands, and charged them with assuming greater powers than those 
possessed by the House of Commons. The struggle continued, but the Governor 
was compelled to yield before each Assembly; until finally December 2, 1750, he 
despairingly wrote to the Lords of Trade that “the King must enforce his authority 
or give it up to the Assembly.” This brought a report to the King (George II) 
signed by Dunk Halifax, Granville, Dupplin, Fran : Fane, and Charles Townshend, 
which in substance admitted that the Royal prerogative depended upon the will of 
the Assembly. While asserting the importance of maintaining the prerogative, they 
suggested that a new Governor was necessary to its recovery. Such a Governor, 
they thought, might be “able to re-unite the Assembly and prevail upon all men to 
assist in re-establishing the proper and ancient constitution of the government. As 
this is a work which cannot be performed but by the united consent of the whole 
Legislature, it probably never can be obtained while the several parts of the Legis¬ 
lature continue at the greatest enmity.” It was suggested whether “the Assembly 
of this Province will ever be induced to give up all the results of so long a contest, 

and their acquisitions by it, but in a time of general satisfaction.because it 

cannot be done but by the approbation of the Legislature, which must be greatly 
reconciled to the government there, before they will concur in such a method of 
giving it permanent strength and support.” After suggesting purposes deemed 
desirable, the report added that “ the several points of domestic government now so 
often disputed would be finally decided by the Legislature, and the several powers 
legally belonging to the Governor, and requisite for his supporting his character 
would be, by a law of the Province, put out of dispute, and all the claims of present 



THE COMMONWEALTH. 


21 


factions against the prerogatives of the Crown would be by a perpetual act of the 
Legislature itself ascertained.” 

This recognition of the practical sovereignty of the People, through the General 
Assembly, was a very important admission. Clinton, however, continued the struggle 
until the fall of 1753, when he resigned. He was succeeded by Sir Danvers Osborne, 
who insisted that the Royal prerogative must be restored. Upon being assured that 
the Assembly would never comply, he plaintively inquired, “ Then what have I come 
here for?” and toward morning hung himself on the garden gate October 12, 
1 753, after having been in office just two days. He was succeeded by James De 
Lancey, who had been appointed Lieutenant-Governor against the remonstrance of 
Clinton. 

The executive power of the Colony was now in hands implicitly trusted by the 
People. De Lancey at once assured both Crown and Assembly that he should obey 
his instructions, and he sought to use his influence with each so as to establish the 
constitution of the Colony upon an enduring basis. The Assembly agreed “ not to 
meddle with the executive part of the government,” wrote the Lieutenant-Governor, 
at the same time saying that “if it should be His Majesty’s pleasure that I may pass 
the act for the payment of the salaries and services of the government in the same 
form as has been done by Mr. Clark, Lieutenant-Governor, and since by Mr. Clinton, 
Governor, I think there will be an end of contention in this Province,” and he added 
that “the point of support for an indefinite time may be left open.” The Lords of 
Trade were disposed to insist upon permanent appropriations, but the gathering 
war-cloud warned them not to be too exacting, and De Lancey was permitted to 
approve annual appropriation bills. The repulse of Dieskau by Johnson, and the 
retreat of the French, with the reduction of Nova Scotia by Winslow, counteracted 
the depression caused by Braddock’s defeat and the indecision of Shirley in remain¬ 
ing at Oswego. The government passed temporarily into the hands of Sir Charles 
Hardy, who had been sent out as Governor, and to assist in the prosecution of the 
war; but he pursued De Lancey’s policy in the Province, upon whom the executive 
authority again devolved two years later (in 1757). Nervelessness characterized the 
conduct of the war until Pitt, the Great Commoner, acceded to power, when he 
infused his indomitable spirit everywhere. Bradstreet reduced Fort Frontenac on 
Lake Ontario, fortified Oswego, and restored security on that frontier. Forbes 
took Fort Du Quesne. Wolfe captured Quebec. Stanwix was victorious on the 
Ohio. Johnson captured Fort Niagara. Amherst advanced from Ticonderoga and 
drove the French back to Isle-aux-Noix. De Lancey kept the General Assembly in 
full accord with the government, large sums of money were raised, and Crown and 
People recognized the patriotic support which was given. The death of De Lancey, 
in July, 1760, was a deplorable misfortune; for the executive power devolved upon 


22 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


Cadwallader Colden, the President of the Council, who was the leader of the Tories, 
and was justly obnoxious to the People. They did not, however, abate their zeal 
in support of the war, which was vigorously prosecuted. The armies pushed forward, 
converging on Montreal. Vandreuil capitulated, and the French power on this conti¬ 
nent was effaced. 

Colden was now the leading official representative of the government, and con¬ 
tinued to be such until the separation of the Colonies from the Crown. Governors 
were sent out from time to time, but they acted under Colden’s advice for a time 
and then returned. He was a servile devotee of British power. The death of De 
Lancey precipitated the question of the organization of the Judiciary. The Assembly 
proposed to place the courts under the regulation of law; the Crown directed that 
they be kept under its authority, and instructed Colden, December 2, 1761, “that 
you do not, upon any pretense whatever, upon pain of being removed from your 
government, give your assent to any act by which the tenure of the commissions to 
be granted to the Chief Judge or other Justices of the several courts of judicature 
shall be regulated or ascertained in any manner whatever, and you are to take 
particular care in all commissions to be by you granted that they be during pleasure 
only, agreeable to ancient practice and usage.” These instructions were issued for 
the purpose of rendering the Judiciary subservient to the Crown. In a letter to the 
Lords of Trade, January 11, 1762, referring to De Lancey, Colden said that they 
had not long since “a glaring instance” of the political power of a Chief Justice 
appointed for life ; so that, at last, the Crown and its agents on both sides of the 
ocean were agreed in the policy of securing the control of this important office. No 
lawyer in New York, however, could be depended upon, and so Benjamin Pratt, 
a Boston lawyer, was imported in October, 1761, and commissioned “during His 
Majesty’s pleasure; ” and a demand was made upon the Assembly, that it make 
permanent provision for his salary. The General Assembly, however, declined to 
make other than annual appropriations, and refused to make any allowance whatever 
unless the commission was issued during good behavior. The Crown thereupon 
directed that the Judges should be maintained out of the quit-rents. Colden 
reported to the Board of Trade that the leaders of the People were William 
Livingston, afterwards Governor of New Jersey; John Morin Scott, who was a 
Radical leader during the Revolution ; and William Smith, the historian, who finally 
espoused the cause of the Crown. The controversy was terminated by the death of 
Pratt in March, 1763, when Governor Monckton issued new commissions to all the 
Judges, during good behavior. The following year an effort was made by Colden, 
sustained by the King and Privy Council, to secure an appeal from the verdicts of 
juries to the Governor or Lieutenant-Governor and Council, on questions of fact, 
which the Supreme Court sturdily and successfully resisted, and the Council sustained 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


23 


it therein. The General Assembly thereupon, on the 15th of December, 1764, 
adopted resolutions thanking’ the Supreme Court and Council for their action. 

The Colony of New York was thus in the very substantial possession of the 
right of self-government, in the beginning of the reign of George III, who ascended 
the throne the year that De Lancey died; and it had maintained itself in possession 
thereof, in spite of the efforts of arbitrary Governors, from the beginning of the 
existence of the General Assembly. 


CHAPTER VI. 


Population of the Colony. — Debt, Taxes and Trade. — Churches and Schools.— 
Law and Medicine.—Social Life. — Crime and Pauperism. — Political Parties.— 
Oppressive Acts of Parliament. 


The population"' of the Colony of New York was now about 100,000. The 
inhabitants were scattered from Long island up the Hudson, and through the 
Mohawk valley to Oswego, where the chief trading post in the Indian country was 
located. They were mainly descendants of the original possessors of the Province; 
but, as was stated in the remonstrance of 1653, they were “composed of various 
nations from different parts of the world,” there being not less than sixteen different 
languages spoken in the Colony in the seventeenth century. 

The English invaders were scattered through the Colony ; those who came in 
the train of the Governors constituting a part of the Royalist party, while the immi¬ 
grants from New England were mainly of opposition sentiments. The Executive 
administration constituted a small corporation, the management of Indian affairs 

being left generally to commissioners selected from the Dutch inhabitants of Albany. 
The currency was depreciated, and there was a public debt of ,£300,000, incurred 

chiefly in aid of the French war. Taxes were raised by direct levies on real and 

personal estate, and by duties on imposts. The annual importations from Great 
Britain were estimated, from 1753 to 1760, at not less than ,£100,000. The impor¬ 
tation of dry goods was so great that it was often difficult to make remittances. 


* In the beginning of the eighteenth century a prejudice existed against the taking of a census, as it was believed to 
bring sickness. The following estimates of the population of the Colony at different periods are taken from various 
authorities: 1698, 18,067 whites, 2,000 blacks; 1703, 20,665; 1712, 27,000; 1723, 40,564; 1731, 50,824; 1737, 60,437; 
1746, 51,589 whites, 10,000 blacks; 1755, 55,000 whites, 11,000 blacks; 1756, 96,790; 1759, 100,000—15,000 to 20,000 
capable of bearing arms; 1762, 100,000; 1771, 163,337; 1771, 148,000 whites, 19,000 blacks; 1773, 148,000; 1774, 150,000 
whites, 20,000 blacks; 1776, 200,000; 1786, 219,000 





24 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


They exported flax seed to Ireland, and logwood and furs to England. The trade 
with the British West Indies was very large. Of flour alone they shipped about 
eighty thousand barrels a year; and they also exported bread, peas, rye, meal, Indian 
corn, apples, onions, boards, stones, horses, sheep, butter, cheese, pickled oysters, 
beef and pork. They received rum, sugar and molasses from the islands, cash, lime 
juice and Nicaragua wood from Curacoa, logwood from Honduras, and cotton from 
St. Thomas and Surinam. The Colonists were not allowed to trade except with 
Great Britain and her dependencies, and various domestic manufactures were prohib¬ 
ited. The currency consisted of gold, silver, British half-pence and bills of credit — 
the latter equaled one ounce of silver, then valued at eight shillings, and amounted 
to about $ r60,000. At the close of the French war, the militia was estimated at 
over fifteen thousand men, and there were twenty-six thousand regular provincial 
troops. The first stage communication with the south was opened in 1756; but 
stag'e lines were not established between New York and the inland villages north 
until after the Revolution. 

The religious freedom, which was a distinctive peculiarity of the Province, 
brought to it refugees from all parts of western Europe. Huguenots, who were so 
numerous in the city of New York as early as 1652 that special religious provision 
was made for them, had settled later at New Rochelle, on the Sound in Westchester 
county, and the Palatines on the Hudson and in Mohawk valley added the wealth 
of their labor to the industry and thrift of earlier immigrations. Differ as they did 
among themselves, they were all bound together by a common hatred of the Catholic 
Church and common antagonism to the Established Church. They maintained their 
own schools, the French institution at New Rochelle, which Philip Schuyler attended, 
being a very excellent one. The requirement that all schoolmasters be licensed by 
the Bishop of London, which was included in the Royal instructions to the Gov¬ 
ernors, enforced in the interest of English schools under the auspices of the members 
of the Established Church by zealous Governors, injured the cause of education. 
The Dutch resisted education in the English tongue, not only because of prejudice 
in favor of their own language, but for the reason that its tendencies were against 
their own faith. But as English immigrants spread over the Colony, the demand for 
English instruction increased, and the necessity for it also, arising out of the fact 
that it was the language of trade and government, which became apparent to all. 
As late as 1755, the Dutch prejudice was so strong that they imported a school¬ 
master from Holland, but he did not succeed until he added English branches to 
his course. 

The feeble condition of the school system of the Colony can be understood, in 
the light of Dutch decadence, and the poor policy of the government in identifying 
English education with the Established Church. The beginning of an English 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


2 5 


educational system had to wait the growth of an English population, and of a senti¬ 
ment strong enough to sustain the needed schools. Finally, common schools were 
opened in the city of New York; and an act was passed, in 1746, authorizing the 
raising of ,£2,250, by lottery, for the founding of King’s College. For a long 
period, there were but two academies in the Province, and in 1750 there were only 
about fifteen more. In 1753, against the opposition of the dissenters, the mistake 
was made of placing the college under the auspices of the Established Church. It 
therefore grew slowly; and in 1773 only five students received degrees. Political 
and religious dissensions, and not indifference to education, explains the low condi¬ 
tion of public instruction in the Colony. 

The dissenting clergy were, for a long period, the only learned class in the 
Colony. They were good livers, but they were also earnest and upright, and 
enforced sound morals. In 1692, an act was passed to maintain Protestant ministers 
at public expense; and, subsequently, while persecution in its grosser form did not 

exist, taxes were levied for the benefit of the English Church. This, of course, 

\ 

secured a certain class of worshipers, with the wealthy and influential of the 
government party ; but the Church was harmed rather than helped by it, for not 
more than one-fifteenth of the population were even nominally included within its 
pale, and the cause of the government suffered by the unwise policy of fostering 
the religious interests of so small a minority. “No Bishops” was a favorite election 
cry, particularly after 1748, when the Archbishop of Canterbury proposed a scheme 
for establishing Episcopacy in the Colonies; while “No Lawyers and No Presby¬ 
terians” was the rallying cry on the part of the government. The large Presbyterian 
element of the Colony formed the strength of the popular party ; while the lawyers 
were naturally in favor of constitutional principles, as against the aggressions of 
prerogative. The opponents of the Royalist party were called “Sons of Liberty” 
as early as Zenger’s trial ; but the friends of the Government sought to excite 
religious animosities by terming the opposition Presbyterians, as most of them were 
either of that or of the Reformed faith. 

The profession of the law was practically open to all, as the Governors licensed 
everybody; and the practice was both popular and profitable, the lawyers being 
leaders of the people, and the fees being high. Medicine grew into importance 
gradually. In 1665, quacks abounded, and a clause in the Duke’s Laws aimed to 
prevent violence on the part of doctors toward patients. In 1753, New York city 
contained forty unlicensed physicians. In 1760, the Assembly passed an act to 
prevent bad physicians, and ordered that no one should practice without a certificate 
from three members of the Council and the Supreme Court. In 1767, a Medical 
School was founded in connection with the College, and two years later a Medical 
College was organized. Social life was gay and pleasant, but Puritan modes pre- 

4 


26 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


vailed. The Dutch spirit favored holidays, but discouraged theaters. A small theater, 
capable of seating about three hundred people, was opened in the city of New York, 
in 1753, and a public library of seven hundred volumes was founded in 1754. Crime 
was rare, and paupers were seldom found. Slavery existed, and there was also a 
large free negro class, following, as usual, in the wake of a seafaring community. 
In 1741, so many fires prevailed, that a popular terror of a negro plot seized upon 
the community, and twenty-two negroes were hanged and thirteen burned to the stake. 

Political divisions in the Colony were based upon the attitude of the Crown 
toward the People, and the good or bad administrations of the Governors or other 
chiefs of the Executive department, in the absence of a Governor. 

The Government or Royalist party was composed of the English officials and their 
retinue, and of those who profited by the administration of affairs, or affiliated with 
an acquiescing Council. This party fluctuated with the changing policies of different 
Governors. It would sometimes control the General Assembly, and when administra¬ 
tors were fairly liberal and honest, it was comparatively easy to do so ; otherwise, it 
was extremely difficult, as the record shows. If the rule of the Government had 
been less arbitrary and corrupt, a loyal if not a Royal party could have been 
maintained in power. The oppressive rule of Andros and Cornbury, and the corrupt 
conduct of some of their successors, alarmed and alienated the inhabitants. 

The Conservative or Liberal party, composed of the great mass of the Dutch 
population, were indifferent to English rule, but demanded that protection to liberty 
and property which is the common right of all, became hostile to the Government, 
under the flagrant misconduct of some Governors, and the oppressive policy pursued 
toward the Colonies. With this policy naturally affiliated conservative immigrants of 
all classes. 

The Radical or Republican party was composed of all who hated Royalty, held 
Cromwell and Hamden in reverence, and thought that the English Republic was the 
ideal Commonwealth. 

In the latter part of the seventeenth century a Jacobite club existed, holding its 
meetings at the house of Governor Fletcher, during his stay in New York, and its 
spirit of devotion to the laws of James, and even its organization, continued in the 
early part of the eighteenth century. An Irish and a French club also then existed. 

The first oppressive navigation act was passed by Parliament in 1660. Bello- 
mont’s war upon piracy and illicit trade is said to have cost New York in the 
neighborhood of ,£100,000; and his sheriffs, by conniving at smuggling, offended the 
regular merchants. The feeling against imprisonment was very intense; and, in 1744, 
the boats of an English man-of-war were burned by some fishermen who had suffered 
by a press gang. A stamp act suggested by Clark was strongly opposed, and the 
established Church policy produced much discontent. In addition to all these 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


27 


grievances, a law of Parliament declared that all manufactories of iron and steel in 
the Colonies should be considered “a common nuisance;” forbade the exportation of 
hats from one Colony to another, and allowed no hatter to have more than two 
apprentices at one time ; levied heavy duties upon sugar, rum and molasses, and in 
other ways burdened the Colony with most oppressive restrictions. 


CHAPTER VII. 

Resistance to Royal Oppressions.—The Writs of Assistance. — Taxation without 
Consent. — New York Initiates United Colonial Action.—Bold Declarations of 
Natural Rights. — Great Britain Determines to Enforce Taxation. — Conference 
of the Committees of Correspondence. — Resistance to the Stamp Act in New 
York. — The Act Repealed. — Joy in the Colonies. — Provision for Troops 
Denied. — The Assembly Suspended by Parliament. — Riotous Proceedings in the 
City of New York. — Order with Liberty.—Assembly Maintains its Inalienable 
Rights, and is Dissolved 

• 

Resistance to Royal oppressions occurred in each Colony, as occasion offered. 
When New York was opposing the usurpation of the Judicial power, in 1761, Massa¬ 
chusetts was contending against the first act of Parliament, for the enforcement of 
the oppressive revenue laws. This was a statute authorizing writs of assistance, 
or general search-warrants, which not only authorized the King’s officers to break 
open any store or dwelling to search for suspected contraband goods, but compelled 
local officers to assist therein. Following this arbitrary and unconstitutional enact¬ 
ment, came the revival of the Sugar act and kindred measures, and then the Stamp 
act, of the passage of which the various Colonies were informed early in 1764, by 
their respective agents at the Court of Great Britain. 

The first movement looking toward united action by the Colonies against the 
aggressions of the Crown was made by the New York Assembly. At the first 
session of the twenty-ninth Assembly, the New York city members were consti¬ 
tuted a Committee of Correspondence with the Agent representing the Colony at 
the Court of Great Britain. The appointment was made April 4, 1761, and 

on the 9th of December, 1762, Robert R. Livingston was added to the Com¬ 
mittee. The Committee then consisted of John Cruger, Philip Livingston. 
Leonard Lispenard, William Bayard and Robert R. Livingston. On the 18th 
of October, 1764, the Assembly approved the memorial of the New York city 




28 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


merchants relative to the oppressive commercial legislation of Parliament, and 
directed that the above Committee “ correspond with the several Assemblies or 
Committees of Assemblies on the subject-matter” of those acts, “and also on the 
subject of the impending dangers which threaten the Colonies, by being taxed by 
laws to be passed in Great Britain.” The same day the Assembly adopted peti¬ 
tions to the King, Lords and Commons, in which they asserted to the King their 
“ perfect equality with their fellow subjects in Great Britain, and as a political 
body enjoying, like the inhabitants of that country, the exclusive right of taxing 
themselves.” To the Lords they said with truth : “ Ever since the glorious Revo¬ 
lution, in which this Colony displayed the most distinguished zeal and alacrity, we 
have enjoyed the uninterrupted privilege of being taxed only with our own con¬ 
sent,” which was “the natural right of mankind.” To the Commons, in claiming 
“ exemption from the burden of ungranted, involuntary taxes,” they said: “ The 
People of this Colony, inspired by the genius of their mother country, nobly 
disdain the thought of claiming that exemption as a privilege. They found it on a 
basis more honorable, solid and stable; they challenge it and glory in it as their 
right.” The petitions also protested against the denial of the right of trial by 
jury contained in the Admiralty acts. The Lords of Trade denounced the address 
of the Assembly as avowing powers and making declarations of a dangerous tend¬ 
ency. A few weeks before the adoption of the address and petitions, in an 
address to the Lieutenant-Governor, the Assembly asked him to “join with us” 
[them] “ in an endeavor to secure that great badge of English liberty, of being 
taxed only with our own consent,” but the cringing Tory would not do it. 

In 1765, Crown and Ministry avowed their intention “to establish the power 
of Great Britain to tax her Colonies,” and Massachusetts suggested that the several 
Committees on Correspondence meet in conference in the city of New York, which 
was agreed to, and they accordingly met on the first Tuesday in October, pursuant 
to invitation. At this conference, the New York policy of basing their demands 
on the broad ground of inalienable right, instead of reasoning from chartered privi¬ 
leges, was adopted, on motion of South Carolina; and New York took the lead in 
defining those rights. A Declaration of Rights and Grievances was adopted, written 
by John Cruger, claiming the right of taxing themselves, the right of trial by 
jury, and the right of petition ; a petition to the King, written by Robert R. 
Livingston, and a memorial to both Houses of Parliament, by fames Otis, were 
also adopted. 

The same month, at a meeting of the merchants of the city of New York, a 
Committee of Correspondence was appointed, consisting of Isaac Sears, John Lamb, 
Gershom Mott, William Wiley and Thomas Robinson ; and measures were adopted 
to compel the appointed Stamp Distributor to resign his commission. The act was to 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


29 


take effect on the 1st of November. Colden strengthened the fort, replenished its 
magazine, and kept armed sloops riding in the harbor. Nothing daunted, the Sons 
of Liberty appeared before the port and demanded the delivery of the stamps and 
their leader, Isaac Sears; and, being refused, hung Colden in effigy, burned the 
effigy, with Colden’s coach, on a bonfire, and so alarmed the Lieutenant-Governor 
that he ordered the stamps to be delivered to the Mayor ^Whitehead Hicks) and 
Common Council, they agreeing to pay for all that might be destroyed or lost. 
The People also seized and burned the stamp paper intended for Connecticut, and 
compelled the resignations of the Maryland distributors, who had fled to New York 
for safety. 

The General Assembly reconvened November 12, and on the 20th approved 

the proceedings of the conference of the Committees of Correspondence ; and other 
petitions to King and Parliament were adopted. Two days thereafter, Colden 
plaintively wrote to Conway that “whatever happens in this place has the greatest 
influence on the other Colonies. They have their eyes perpetually on it, and they 
govern themselves accordingly.” The demonstration in the Colonies produced a 
great effect in Great Britain. The London merchants, whose trade had been ruined, 

took the part of the Colonies; a bill to repeal the Stamp act was introduced in 

Parliament in January and passed March 18, 1766. The intelligence reached New 

York in May, when the greatest joy was manifested. The Sons of Liberty, on the 

King’s birthday, June 4, held a feast, at which they erected a mast, inscribed, 

“To His most Gracious Majesty, George the Third, Mr. Pitt and Liberty.” At a 
meeting in New York, on the 23d of June, the Assembly was requested to erect a 
statue in honor of Pitt. The request was complied with, and an equestrian statue 
to the King was also ordered. Both were set up in 1770; but, six years there¬ 
after, the People tore down the King’s statue, and the British soldiers retaliated 

by mutilating that of Pitt. 

The Royalists were not disposed to be as liberal as their proceedings led the 
impulsive Sons of Liberty to suppose. Early in June, in the midst of the joy 
over the repeal of the Mutiny act, Governor Moore notified the Assembly that 
reinforcements were expected from England, and required it to provide for the 
troops, under the Enforcement act. The Assembly refused, and the Sons of Liberty 
resolved to resist. The soldiers arrived, and indignantly cut down the mast erected 
but a little more than a month before. It was re-erected the following evening as 
“The Liberty Pole,” and was again cut down. The Assembly continued defiant, 
and it was prorogued again and again by the Governor. Parliament now deter¬ 
mined to enforce its claims. In June, 1767, it passed an act levying duties upon 
certain articles, another creating a Board of Trade or Commissioners of Customs for 
the Colonies with powers of search and seizure, and a third suspending the Legisla- 


30 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


ture of New York —to take effect October i. On the 6th of June, however, the 
General Assembly retraced its steps, by appropriating ,£3,000 for troops quartered in 
the Colony, and immediately adjourned. It reconvened November I7> and was 
informed of the act of suspension, when it made an appropriation of ,£1,500, and it 
continued to sit until the 6th of February following, when its term expired, by the 
limitation of the Septennial act. On the 7th of May, 1768, the Lords of Trade 
gave it as their opinion that the act of Parliament had been complied with, and the 
King expressed his approval in Council August 12. 

The same year (1768) Massachusetts issued a circular letter to the Provinces, 
in the name of the Speaker of the Assembly, in which the state of the Colony was 
boldly considered, and the co-operation of other Colonies solicited; for refusing to 
rescind which the General Court was dissolved. The new General Assembly of 
New York convened in October. On the 14th of November Governor Moore 
transmitted instructions from Lord Hillsborough against holding seditious corre¬ 
spondence with other Colonies, and called upon the Legislature to yield obedience. 
The Assembly refused, and boldly remonstrated against ministerial interference with 
their inalienable privileges. The People were greatly agitated, and a serious riot 
took place, in which the Sons of Liberty were involved; whereupon the Governor 
requested the Assembly to sustain him in offering a reward for the ringleaders. An 
address was thereupon prepared by Colonel Philip Schuyler, condemning the rioters 
and complying with the request, while at the same time censuring the course of 
Parliament. In December a series of resolutions were adopted, evidently from the 
same pen, asserting their indefeasible right as a Legislature. They also asserted 
their right to correspond with other Colonies, and appointed a Committee of Corre¬ 
spondence for that purpose. This action gave such offense to the Governor that 
he dissolved the Assembly January 3, 1769, and ordered a new election. 

Meantime, non-importation agreements had been renewed. They were lived up 
to with such effect that the exports from England to America fell from $11,890,000 
in 1768 to a little more than $8,000,000 in 1769, tea falling from $660,000 to 
$220,000. The People were fully aroused. 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


3i 


CHAPTER VIII. 


CO-OPERATION WITH SlSTER COLONIES. — DIVISIONS IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. — THE 

Betrayers of the People Denounced. — Collisions between Troops and People.— 
Non-importation Agreement Modified.—The Policy of Reconciliation. — The 
Breach again Widens.- 1 -Resistance to the Importation of Tea. — A General 
Congress Urged. — Organizations in the City of New York. — Action of the Con¬ 
tinental Congress.— Approved by the People and Disapproved by the Assembly.— 
Inglorious Ending of the General Assembly. 


The General Assembly elected in 1769 was the last General Assembly chosen 
by the People of the Colony of New York. Division of counsel among the Con¬ 
servatives soon became apparent. The Assembly met April 4, and was prorogued 
May 20; but this brief session was crowded with important events. A Peace policy 
had been devised which, under the deceitful appearance of compromise, made 
concessions to the People without yielding to them the vital principle in question. 
The new Assembly agreed to a firm address, written by Schuyler, thanking the 
non-importers for living up to their agreement, and sustaining them therein “until such 
acts of Parliament as the Assembly had declared unconstitutional and subversive of 
the rights of the People should be repealed.” This resolution was offered by Philip 
Livingston, and adopted on the 10th of April; and on the 13th Governor Moore 
wrote that the new Assembly is tenacious of its power. This, however, was an 
error, for the Assembly postponed Livingston’s motion to re-adopt the petitions of 
1768, and voted appropriations to troops, thus leaving the way open for an agree¬ 
ment with the Crown, by conceding away the rights of the People. Livingston, 
who had been one of the Representatives for the city of New York since 1759, 
had been superseded by John Cruger, and Cruger had been elected Speaker in 
place of Livingston, who was Speaker in 1768. The latter was chosen to the 
Assembly in 1769 from the Manor of Livingston, and was dismissed May 12 for 
non-residence. 

The Virginia House of Burgesses was in session at the same time with the 
New York Assembly. On the 16th of May, it adopted resolutions protesting 
against taxation without representation, asserting the right of trial by a jury of 
the vicinage, and favoring combination among the Colonies. The House was 
thereupon dissolved, when the Burgesses met in convention and formed a stringent 
non-importation agreement. The English Ministry now sent a circular to the 
Colonies proposing to withdraw all taxes excepting the insignificant duty on tea, 


32 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


yielding a revenue, perhaps, of ££00 a y ear I thus preserving a dangerous power 
for a paltry trifle. When the New \ ork Assembly reassembled in November, it 
again asserted that the right of taxation vested exclusively in the Assembly, main¬ 
tained the right of petition and of trial by jury, condemned the sending of persons 
beyond the high seas for trial as “ highly derogatory to the British subject, and, 
on the 29th, concurred in the Virginia resolutions. 

A remarkable project was now introduced in the Assembly. It was proposed 
to issue bills of credit, on the security of the Colony, to the amount of £ 120,- 
000, to be loaned to the People, the interest to be applied to the defraying of the 
expenses of the Colonial Government. Connected therewith was a proposition to 
grant £ 1,000 for Colonial treasury, and ,£1,000 more for the support of the troops. 
The preliminary resolutions passed the General Assembly by only one majority, 
toward the close of November. 

This action was vigorously denounced by Captain Alexander McDougall, a brave 
Scotch sailor, who afterward became a General in the Revolution, in a circular 
distributed throughout the city on the night of the 15th of December. He boldly 
charged that the People had been betrayed; and the circular was characterized as 
“ a false, seditious and infamous libel,” by the Assembly, in a resolution which 
received the vote of every member except Philip Schuyler, the Conservative leader. 
The same day (December 17) that he voted an emphatic No on the resolution, 
he nominated Edmund Burke for Agent of the Colonies at the Court of Great 
Britain. This appointment was made one year later, by the Assembly, against the 
opposition of Colden, who thought the designation ought to be made by the 
Governor, Council and Assembly, as in other Colonies. The Assembly, however, 
was not disposed to relinquish its power over the matter, and preferred to have 
its cause represented by the most eloquent representative it could secure. 

McDougall was indicted and imprisoned, was arraigned before the Assembly, 
and was ably defended by George Clinton, another Radical leader, with such success 
that the indictment was never brought to trial, and McDougall was released in 
February, 1771. 

The year 1770 opened with affrays between the troops and the People, in 
the streets of the city of New York. About midnight, on the 16th of January, 
an insolent band of soldiers cut down the Liberty Pole and sawed it into pieces, 
and for three days conflicts were frequent, the People generally being successful. 
In a sharp encounter on Golden Hill — Cliff street, between Fulton and Maiden 
lane — several of the troops were disarmed and severely beaten. Few persons were 
wounded, and none killed. Another Liberty Pole was erected on private grounds, 
and in March an attempt of the soldiers to cut it down was successfully resisted. 
In May the troops were removed to Boston, and order was restored. 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


33 


Outbreaks in Boston, culminating in the massacre on the 5th of March, caused 
some excitement; but this was allayed by the new policy of the Government, which 
looked to the concentration of force in Massachusetts, while pursuing a conciliatory 
policy in New \ ork, thus endeavoring to conquer in detail. In furtherance of this 
policy, a bill to repeal all duties except that upon tea was introduced into Parliament 
by Lord North on the day of the Boston massacre, and the act was passed in April. 
New \ ork was the only Colony in which the non-importation agreement had been 
scrupulously kept, although the People throughout all the Colonies were earnestly in 
its favor. At a meeting of the citizens of New York, on the 3d of May, violators of 
the agreement in Rhode Island were denounced, whereupon the Committee of One 
Hundred disavowed it, and the Vigilance Committee in turn denounced the repudia- 
tors. On the 9th of July, the Committee of One Hundred resolved to resume 
importation of every thing except tea, and issued a circular attempting to justify 
their course, which was received with scorn by patriots in the city of New York, 
Boston and Philadelphia. The feeling was intensified in Massachusetts, by the 
arbitrary conduct of Governor Hutchinson, who converted Boston into a military 
station, called the General Court together at Cambridge, and urged the repeal of 
the Charter. If he had been wiser, perhaps the feeling would have died out there, 
as it was dying out in the other Colonies. 

The southern Colonies were now tranquil, and New York gained the credit 
for having led in the policy of pacification. Governor Dunmore, who had recently 
arrived, in his address to the General Assembly when it met in December, 1770, 
congratulated it upon “ the salutary reconciliation effected by the People of this 
Province.” In response, the Assembly adopted an address written by Col. De 
Lancey, leader of the Royalists, in which occurred these words: “ The favorable 

disposition shown by the inhabitants of this Colony to renew the commercial 
intercourse with the mother country will, we trust, be the means of effecting a 
cordial reconciliation between Great Britain and the Colonies, so necessary at all 
times for the security and preservation of both, and recommend us to the favor 
of our most gracious Sovereign.” A motion to strike this sentence from the address 
received only five votes out of sixteen ; and only two votes were cast against the 
bill protecting the troops, which passed February 7, 1771. On the 18th of January 
preceding, Dunmore notified the Assembly that he could not accept any salary 
from them, and the notification was repeated by Tryon, February 13, 1772. This 
movement by the Crown was denounced in other Colonies; but in New York it 
was passed over in silence. 

Controversies continued in Massachusetts, throughout 1771 and 1772, between 
the Governor and the Assembly, as to their respective powers. The Governors of 
Georgia and North Carolina came into collision with the Assemblies of those 


5 


34 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


Colonies in 1772. The petition of Virginia, that the slave trade might be checked, 
was overruled. The affair of the Gaspee excited Rhode Island and the northern 
Provinces; and the House of Burgesses in Virginia, in 1 773 > adopted a series of 
resolutions favoring a renewal of the system of correspondence between the Colonies, 
which was received with warm favor in New England. 

The home government was evidently of opinion that the time had come to 
enforce its authority. The agreement not to import tea had been scrupulously kept. 
The East India Company had more than seventeen million pounds in its warehouses 
in England, was burdened with private debts and could not pay its bonus to the 
Crown. The Company asked permission to ship its teas free of duty; and, if the 
request had been granted, trouble between the Colonies and Great Britain would 
have ended. The concession was not made; but, in its place, the Ministry gave 
permission to ship teas free of export duty. Thus a discrimination was made against 
the Colonies, to which they would not submit. 

The Sons of Liberty were reorganized in New York, and made every prepara¬ 
tion to resist the landing of the tea, when the agents resigned. It was not until 
the 18th of April, 1774, that the first tea ship, the Nancy , arrived; and the 
consignee advised the captain to return with his cargo, which he did. Some tea 

aboard another vessel was emptied into the harbor. Similar proceedings were had 
at every other port. Every pound of tea that came to America was either 
destroyed, taken back or sent back, so that not a farthing of revenue was 

received. 

The tea consigned to Boston was emptied into the harbor December 16, 1773, 
and Parliament and the Ministry resorted to extreme retaliatory measures immedi¬ 
ately upon receiving intelligence. The Colonies were deeply stirred, and movements 
for organized opposition were general. 

The Sons of Liberty in New York addressed a letter to their friends in Boston, 
dated May 14, 1774, urging the adoption of vigorous measures. The merchants 
held a meeting on the evening of the 16th, at which a committee of fifty was 
nominated to a meeting of citizens to be held on the 19th. The nominations 
were agreed to at that meeting, with one addition ; and, on the 23d, at a meeting 
of the Committee of Fifty-one, Paul Revere, a Son of Liberty from Boston, pre¬ 
sented a letter from that city, transmitting the official proceedings of a meeting 

held there on the 23d. This letter was referred to a sub-committee, consisting of 
Alexander McDougall, Isaac Low, James Duane and John Jay; and a response, 
supposed to have been written by the latter, was reported to the grand committee 
that evening. This response contained the suggestion that “ a Congress of Deputies 
for the Colonies in general is of the utmost importance,” and that “ it ought to 
be assembled without delay.” A second letter to the Boston committee, dated the 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


35 


7th of June, requested them to appoint the time and place for holding the pro¬ 
posed Congress. 

The Boston Committee called the Congress, to meet in Philadelphia on the 1st 
of September, and adopted a “Solemn League and Covenant,’’ reaffirming all former 
non-importation agreements and other measures of resistance. The Committee of 
Fifty-one did not adopt the “ League and Covenant,” whereupon it was denounced 
at a meeting held in the fields on the 19th of June. The Committee of Fifty- 
one, at a meeting held on the evening of the 4th of July, nominated delegates 
to the Continental Congress. Another meeting was held “ in the fields,” on the 
evening of the 6th, at which the most vigorous resolutions were adopted. The 
Committee of Fifty-one met on the evening of the 7th, and denounced the reso¬ 
lutions of the great meeting in the fields as seditious and incendiary, whereupon 
eleven of their number withdrew. A committee of the “Tribunes,” or mechanics, 
as they were called, then addressed a note to each of the nominees for a seat in 
the Congress of Deputies, asking them if they would support the Massachusetts 
resolves, and they responded in the affirmative, whereupon they were chosen at 

the election. The “ Patricians,” as the conservative merchants were called, were 

therefore beaten at every point by the Tribunes. 

The “ Patricians ” were naturally disposed to doubt the feasibility of a revival 
of the policy of non-intercourse, in view of the fact that when the New York 

merchants scrupulously adhered to it, other Colonies gradually relaxed their observ¬ 
ance of the agreement ; but they were willing to comply with any policy adopted 
by the Continental Congress. When it organized an American Association for 
commercial non-intercourse, the Committee of Fifty-one dissolved, and was succeeded 
in November by a Committee of Sixty, charged with the duty of “carrying into 
execution the association entered into by the Continental Congress.” The Com¬ 

mittee of Sixty, termed an Executive Committee, was increased to a Committee 
of One Hundred after the battle of Lexington, and termed a Committee of 
Resistance, or Provisional War Committee. 

The Continental Congress, at its first session, adopted a Declaration of Rights, 
prepared by those sturdy patriots, John Jay and Philip Livingston of New York, 
and Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, and also adopted addresses to the King and 
to the People of Great Britain. It further resolved “that this Congress approve 
the opposition of the inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay to the execution of the 
late acts of Parliament, and if the same shall be attempted to be carried into exe¬ 
cution by force, in such case all America ought to support them in their opposition.” 

The General Assembly of New York, on the 26th of January, 1775, refused 
to take into consideration the proceedings of the Continental Congress, moved by 
Colonel Ten Broeck, by a vote of eleven to twelve; on the 16th of February, 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


3 6 

refused to agree to a motion, made by Colonel Schuyler, to place on record the 
correspondence of its own Committee with other Colonies, on the 17th \oted down 
resolutions of thanks to the delegates to the Continental Congress, offered by 
Colonel Woodhull; on the 21st. refused to thank the non-importing merchants, 
and on the 23d declined to send delegates to the next Continental Congress, on 

the 25th of March it adopted a feeble report from the Committee on Grievances, 

appointed to “ supplicate the Throne for rights arbitrarily denied, voting down 
every motion to strengthen it; and on the 15th of May its petition was rejected 
by the Crown because the right of Parliament to tax America was denied. The 

petition contained humiliating phrases, which Philip Schuyler vainly endeavored to 
have stricken out; and yet the Tories debased themselves for nothing. And still 
the Ministry had the effrontery to claim that North’s policy “would remove all 
obstacles to the restoration of public tranquillity ” through “ the moderation and 
loyal disposition of the Assembly of New York.” It was a poor reliance. That 
Assembly adjourned April 3 to May 3, 1775; was prorogued from time to time, 
and never met again. It failed to represent the People, and it failed to secure 

the recognition of their rights from the Crown; and was superseded by a legis¬ 
lative body which remained faithful to its trust. 


CHAPTER IX. 


Parties in New York. — The Traitorous Assembly.—Constitutional Liberty.—The 
Provincial Convention. — The Battle of Lexington.—Acts of the Sons of Lib¬ 
erty. — The Royal Government Prostrated. — Government by the People. — 
Movements in the City of New York. — Recommendations of the Continental 
Congress. — Prompt Action by the Provincial Congress.—Movements of General 
Schuyler.—The Invasion of Canada. — Council with the Indians. — Its Favorable 
Results. — Tories Driven from the Mohawk Valley.—Submission of the Mohawk 
Indians. — The Situation in New York at the Close of the Colonial. Period. 


The germs of the two political parties which were subsequently to divide the 
State can be seen distinctly in all the movements which have been described, 
originating in the Colonial parties and developing into organizations holding oppos¬ 
ing or at least diverging principles. The Government party continued as Tories, of 
course, with the accessions it secured by bribery or blandishment in the ill-fated 
General Assembly. The Radicals were the party of immediate action, determined 




THE COMMONWEALTH. 


37 


to crush the Tories, silence the timid, and capture the conservatives. The Con¬ 
servative Liberals became the Federalists, determined to demand concert of action, 
and to stand firm in united resistance to the Government, whatever the result might 
be. The resolute supporter of law-abiding liberty and noble representative of 
the Dutch founders of the Province, Philip Schuyler, and the sturdy English 
champion of the rights of the People, George Clinton, became, by the force of 
events, leaders of the Federal and Anti-Federal parties, respectively, while the 
scholarly and brilliant descendant of a Huguenot refugee, John Jay, was the elo¬ 
quent recorder of the principles and purposes of the Whig founders of the New 
Commonwealth. 

The fundamental basis of the Colonial Whig doctrine, to which all were 
devoted, was the sovereignty of the People. Nowhere had it been more clearly 
affirmed, or upheld with more firmness and success, than in New Netherland and 
New York. The Convention of 1653 based it upon “the law of nature.” The 
Dongan Assembly, in 1683, enunciated it with startling boldness, in the Charter of 
Liberties; and the General Assembly thereafter maintained it with stubborn per¬ 
sistency, until the very last one elected in the Colony sought to betray the People 
into the hands of the Crown. The time had now come, therefore, when they must 
either submit to betrayal, or take the vindication of their sovereign rights into their 
own hands. Conservatives and Radicals agreed in pursuing the latter course. 

The Continental Congress had recommended the formation of town and county 
committees in the various Colonies, and the recommendation had been generally com¬ 
plied with in New York. The Committee of Association, in the city, was the natural 
head of these organizations. This committee issued a call, in March, 1775, f° r 
the election of delegates to a Provincial Convention, to be held on the 20th of 
April, for the sole purpose of choosing delegates to the Continental Congress. They 
also called the People of the city together, on the 6th of April, who met around 
the Liberty Pole, bearing a banner inscribed “ Constitutional Liberty,” and nominated 
delegates to the Convention. Delegates were also selected in the various counties. 
The Convention met on the 20th of April, pursuant to call, appointed delegates 
to the Continental Congress, and adjourned on the 22d. 

The Provincial Convention closed its labors on Saturday. The next day (Sunday) 
a vague rumor reached the city of New York, of the battle of Lexington. Imme¬ 
diately, the Sons of Liberty unloaded two vessels that were about to sail for 
Boston with flour for the British troops; and toward evening, having secured a 
large quantity of the public arms, they took possession of the City Hall and placed 
a guard of one hundred men at the door, and they also placed another guard of 
one hundred men over the powder magazine. The leader of the Liberty Boys, 
Isaac Sears, having been arrested for seditious words for having advised the People 


38 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


to prepare for conflict, his friends took him from the officers and bore him in 
triumph through the town, preceded by a band of music and a banner. They then, 
with him at their head, closed the custom house and laid an embargo upon 
vessels in the harbor. On Tuesday, at two o clock in the afternoon, authentic 
intelligence of the battle reached New York, when word was sent to the Albany 
Committee of Correspondence by sloop, reaching there on Friday, and from thence 
it was spread by couriers as rapidly as possible through the Hudson and Mohawk 
valleys. 

The guns of Lexington destroyed the rotten shell of Royal Government in 
New York, and called into being a new Government, freshly chosen from the 

People. Fourteen out of thirty-one members of Assembly, most of them belonging 
to the Tory majority, appealed to General Gage against the use of force; the 

Council sent two agents to London to inform the King that the Boston army 
had greatly injured his cause, and that his Government, in the Province, was 

prostrated; the Assembly, which 'adjourned on the 3d of April, never met again; 
and the Convention which framed the State Constitution fixed the 19th day of 
April, 1775, as the day on which lawful Royal rule in the Commonwealth ceased. 

The work of organizing Government proceeded rapidly. The People of the 
city of New York held a meeting on the 1st of May, at which the Executive 

Committee was increased from sixty to one hundred members, and “ resolved to 
stand or fall with the liberty of the Continent.” On the 5th an address, written 

and headed by John fay, was adopted, and forwarded to the Lord Mayor and 
Corporation of London, in which the signers, speaking for the People, declared 

that they “ could never submit to slavery. The disposal of their own property 
with perfect spontaneity is their indefeasible birthright. This they are determined 
to defend with their blood, and transfer to their posterity. The present machina¬ 
tions of arbitrary power, if unremittedly pursued, will, by a fatal necessity, terminate 
in the dissolution of the empire. This country will not be deceived by measures 
conciliatory in appearance. We cheerfully submit to a regulation of commerce by 
the Legislature of the parent State, excluding in its nature every idea of taxation. 
. All the horrors of civil Avar will never compel America to submit to taxa¬ 
tion by authority of Parliament.” A military association Avas formed, under the 

leadership of Samuel Broome; and a paper Avas prepared for the People at large 
to sign, in the nature of a league, in which they resolved “ in the most solemn 

manner never to become slaves, and to associate, under all the ties of religion, 
honor and love of country, to adopt and to endeavor to carry into execution whatever 
measures may be recommended by the Continental Congress, or resolved upon by 
the Provincial Convention, for the purpose of preserving their Constitution and 
opposing the execution of the several arbitrary and oppressive acts of the British 



THE COMMONWEALTH. 


39 


Parliament, until a reconciliation between Great Britain and America, on constitu¬ 
tional principles, which is most ardently desired, can be obtained.” 

The Continental Congress met on the ioth of May, desirous of effecting recon¬ 
ciliation if possible, but determined upon resistance in the event of failure. The 
same day, the Green Mountain Boys captured Ticonderoga, which was followed 
by the occupation of Crown Point on the 12th. On the 15th, the Continental 
Congress appointed George Washington, Samuel Adams and Thomas Lynch a 
committee to consider what posts it was necessary to occupy in the Colony of New 
^ ° r k; and, a few days later, adopted a report from the same committee recom¬ 
mending that the Colony proceed immediately to erect fortifications at the upper 
end of York island and in the Hudson Highlands; to arm and train the militia, 
and to enlist troops for the remainder of the year, and in every way to persevere 
the more vigorously in preparing for their defense, as it was very uncertain whether 
the earnest endeavors of Congress to accommodate the unhappy differences between 
Great Britain and the Colonies, by conciliatory measures, would be successful. The 
Provincial Congress of New York, which met on the 22d of May, appointed com¬ 
mittees to carry out these recommendations; subscribed to the American Association 
for the suspension of commercial intercourse, and adopted measures to enforce its 
provisions; recommended the emission of paper money in the form of bills of 
credit by the Continental Congress, thus being the first to recognize the Confed¬ 
eration as complete and the Congress as supreme; appealed to the inhabitants of 
Canada to unite with their sister Colonies in defense of their liberties; proposed 
plans for reconciliation, and recommended Philip Schuyler and Richard Montgomery 
for Major-General and Brigadier-General, respectively. 

George Washington was appointed Commander-in-Chief of “all the forces raised 
or to be raised for the defense of the Colonies,” by the Continental Congress, on 
the 15th of June; left Philadelphia for Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the 21st, accom¬ 
panied by Generals Lee and Schuyler; reached New Y r ork on Sunday, the 25th, 
four hours before Governor Tryon, where both were received with equal honor; 
conferred with Schuyler that evening with regard to the department of New York, 
and proceeded on his way the next morning. General Schuyler accompanied him 
a short distance, and then returned to the city, where he wrote a communication to 
the Continental Congress, containing recommendations for the work of defense. 

The remainder of the year 1775, with the first half of 1776, was devoted by 
General Schuyler to three important purposes — the invasion of Canada, the sup¬ 
pression of the Tories in the Mohawk valley, and the winning of the Indians over 
to the Colonial cause. The first forms part of the general history of the country. 
It was understood that Connecticut was to provide the men and New York furnish 
the supplies. The Green Mountain Boys formed part of the force, and companies 


4 o 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


were slowly organized in this Commonwealth. The movement was greatly embar¬ 
rassed by the same difficulties which surrounded Washington in the siege of Boston 
— insubordination of the soldiers, inefficiency of the officers and lack of supplies. 
The army, under the command of General Montgomery, finally found its way north, 
while Arnold penetrated Canada through the wilderness of Maine. Brave, undaunted, 
successful in a measure, the expedition finally came to naught through the inability 
of the American people to conduct such extended operations so early in the struggle. 

The efforts to secure the support of the Indians were thwarted to a consider¬ 
able degree by Guy Johnson and lohn Johnson, although satisfactory results were 
sometimes obtained. Sir John Johnson was Brigadier-General of the Tryon county 
militia, and pretended to be true to the Colonial cause; he fortified Johnson Hall, 
and had under his call a large body of loyalists, consisting of Scotch Highlanders 
and English residents. The Dutch and German inhabitants of the valley were 
patriots, however, and were in the majority. 

The Continental Congress, in full appreciation of the importance of keeping 
the Indians neutral, at least, appointed General Philip Schuyler, Major Joseph 
Hawley, Turbutt Francis, Oliver Wolcott and Volckert P. Douw, Commissioners 
of Indian Affairs for the Northern Department. These Commissioners held a 
council with some of the Indians at Albany, August 25, 1775, but most of them 
were already under the influence of Guy Johnson, who had repaired first to Ontario 
and then to Oswego. The council at Albany, the last Indian council ever held 
there, relieved the people of Tryon county of their fears, and thereafter the work 
of removing the Tories was proceeded with. 

The first Liberty Pole erected in the Mohawk valley was raised at German 
Flats. This pole was cut down by a band of Tories, headed by Alexander White, 
who had been appointed Sheriff in March, 1772. The inhabitants were thereupon 
enrolled and organized as militia by the Tryon County Committee, which took full 
charge of public affairs over a very* large portion of the county. White arrested a 
Whig named Fonda on some flimsy pretext, and committed him to the jail near 
Johnson Hall, from which he was released by a band of Whigs; and the public 
indignation against the Tory Sheriff became so great that he fled, but was captured 
on the upper Hudson and conveyed to Ticonderoga, where he wrote a most humble 
note, under date of August 12, to General Schuyler, who caused him to be impris¬ 
oned for a time in Albany, and then released him on parole. He was succeeded 
in September by Joshua Frey, under appointment of the County Committee. Brave 
Nicholas Herkheimer (as the General wrote the name) was the Chairman of the 
County Committee. 

Montgomery’s successes secured for him a Major-General’s commission on the 
9th of December, and so impressed the Indians that about sixty chiefs visited 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


4i 


Schuyler and Douw, at Albany, on the 12th, and professed submission. The Tories 
in the Mohawk valley, however, continued active, and special measures were taken 
for their suppression. General Schuyler thereupon called for seven hundred Albany 
militia to proceed with him to 1 ryon county, and a most gratifying response was 

given. He left Albany on the 16th day of January, four days after receiving the 

news of reverses in Canada, and by the time he reached Caughnawaga (now 

Fonda) he had nearly three thousand men under his command, including nine hun¬ 
dred of the Tryon county militia. He had also received the submission of the 

Mohawk Indians. The Tories were at Johnson Hall, under Sir fohn Johnson, who 
had fortified the Hall. After some parleying, he surrendered on the 19th of Jan¬ 
uary, 1776. Some three hundred Scotch Highlanders laid down their arms and 

three or four hundred other Tories disbanded; Johnson gave his parole not to take 

up arms against the Colonists, and not to go westward among the Indians beyond 
the German Flats and Kingslancl district; two cannons and some stores were sur¬ 
rendered, and Schuyler returned to Albany on the 21st. The Indians again became 
troublesome in March, but the evacuation of Boston by the British troubled them, 
and they quieted down in April. The Tories, under Sir John Johnson, who had 
violated his parole, now assumed a threatening attitude; and, accordingly, May 14, 
General Schuyler sent an expedition to Johnstown, whereupon Johnson fled to 

Canada, and his wife was brought to Albany, with other Tories, by Schuyler’s 

direction, where she was kindly treated, but retained as a hostage. 

The British plan of dividing the associated Colonies on the line of Hudson 
river and Lake Champlain was well known. While Washington was before Boston, 
the Sons of Liberty held possession of the city of New York, destroying the Tory 
press, and resorting to violence if necessary to keep the Tories in subjection. 
Then General Charles Lee took command and proceeded to fortify the city, which 
course was pursued by his successor, Lord Stirling. General Washington arrived 
about the middle of April, and thereafter the city looked like a fortified camp. 
The British forces in America were now concentrated in New York harbor, and 
landed on Staten island, while Washington took possession of Brooklyn heights, and 
from there to the present site of Greenwood cemetery. The island was filled 
with Tory refugees. Meantime, the American army in Canada had retreated, and 
Burgoyne had arrived at Quebec. This was the situation in the Commonwealth, 
when the State of New York was formally proclaimed, by authority of the People 
thereof. 


6 


42 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


CHAPTER X. 


Republican Government Organized. — Declaration of Independence Approved. The 
State of New York Proclaimed. — The British Capture New York City, and 
Invade the Northern Department.—Sovereignty of the People over the Com¬ 
monwealth Affirmed. — State Government Organized. — Supremacy of the 
Assembly Secured. — General George Clinton Elected Governor. — Perils of the 
Western Frontier. — Fort Schuyler Invested. — Battle of Oriskany. — The Siege 
Raised by Arnold.—Burgoyne Moves down the Upper Hudson, and Sir Henry 
Clinton Sails up the River. — Clinton’s Successes, and the Repulse of Bur¬ 
goyne.— Retreat of the Latter.— Kingston Burned. — Burgoyne Surrenders.— 
Indian Raids. — Military Operations around New York. — The City Evacuated.— 
New York and the War. 

The Government of the Commonwealth was administered by Provincial Congresses 
and Committees of Safety appointed thereby, from the prostration of the Royal 
Government until the formal institution of a State Government. Three Provincial 
Congresses were successively chosen before the actual independence of the State 
was declared. The Continental Congress in May, 1776, adopted a resolution 
declaring it “ necessary that the exercise of every kind of authority under the 
Crown should be totally suppressed, and all the powers of Government exerted 
under the authority of the People of the Colonies;” and it, therefore, recommended 
the various Congresses to consider the propriety of organizing new Governments. 
On the 31st of May, the Provincial Congress of New York adopted a resolution 
recommending in consequence of the “ dissolution of the former Government by the 
abdication of the late Governor and the exclusion of this Colony from the protection 
of the King of Great Britain,” that deputies be elected “to institute and establish 
such a Government as they shall deem best calculated to secure the rights, liberties 
and happiness of the good People of this Colony.” This method was taken, notwith¬ 
standing the Congress had been just chosen (the election was in April) in order 
that the sense of the People might be clearly expressed, upon the important 
matter thus referred to them. 

The Fourth Provincial Congress met at White Plains, July 9, 1776. The same 
day the Declaration of Independence, and the proceedings of Congress in connection 
therewith, were laid before the delegates, who thereupon immediately “ Resolved, 
unanimously, that the reasons assigned by the Continental Congress for declaring 
the United Colonies free and independent States are cogent and conclusive, and 
that, while we lament the cruel necessity which has rendered that measure una- 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


43 


voidable, we approve the same, and will, at the risk of our lives and fortunes, 
join with the other Colonies in supporting it; ” and the next day adopted the 
name of Convention of Representatives of the State of New York. Every county 
in the State was represented except Richmond, which was occupied by the British 
army, on the 8th of July. On the ist of August a committee was appointed to 
prepare a form of government, but the committee did not report until the following 
March. 

Meantime, the British landed on Long island, on the 22cl of August, 1776, 
and defeated the Americans in the battle of the 27th, compelling Washington to 
cross over the river to New York, which he did on the night of the 29th. The 
British fleet then moved to within cannon range of the city, whereupon Washington 
retired to Harlem heights. On the 15th of September the enemy landed three 
miles above New York, extended their lines across the island, and took posses¬ 
sion of the city. The Provincial Congress, in session at White Plains, adjourned 
on the 5th of October, and on the 28th a battle was fought there, after which 
Washington withdrew to the heights of North Castle, and Howe returned to New 

York. Washington then crossed to Fort Lee, on the west side of the Hudson. On 

the 16th of October, the British captured Fort Washington on Harlem heights, and 
two days thereafter Fort Lee was taken by Cornwallis. By this time Washington’s 
army had been reduced to three thousand men, and he retreated to New Jersey, 
followed by Cornwallis. The passes and forts of the Highlands were left in com¬ 
mand of Brigadier-General George Clinton. At the North, on the 6th of August, 
Schuyler held a council with the Indians at German Flats, at which they agreed 
to remain neutral. In October, the Americans were defeated in a naval battle on 
Lake Champlain, and on the 14th Carleton took possession of Crown Point, but 
abandoned it again on the 3d of November, throwing away the opportunity to 
capture Ticonderoga. Meantime, under direction of General Schuyler, on the 24th 
of October, a boom was laid across the lake, from Ticonderoga to Mount Inde¬ 
pendence. When the Provincial Congress assembled at Kingston, March 5, 1777, 
the commercial part of the State was in the hands of the enemy, a formidable 
invasion threatened the Commonwealth at the North, and there were fears of an 

Indian incursion at the West. Nevertheless, the patriots proceeded to the work 

before them without fear. 

In the midst of the gloom with which the year 1776 closed, the Convention 
had issued a stirring address to the People, written by John Jay, and dated on 
the 23d of December, containing such sentiments as these: “Rouse, brave citizens! 
Do your duty like men ; and be persuaded that Divine Providence will not permit 
this western world to be involved in the horrors of slavery. Consider, that from 
the earliest ages of the world, religion, liberty and reason have been bending their 


44 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


course toward the setting sun. The Holy Gospels are yet to be preached to these 
western regions; and we have the highest reason to believe that the Almighty will 
not suffer slavery and the Gospel to go hand in hand. It cannot — it will not be. 

. If success crown your efforts, all the glory of freemen will be your reward; 

if you fail in the contest, you will be happy with God in Heaven ! ” 

The same pen wrote the preamble to the Constitution of the State. After 
declaring that “ the many tyrannical and oppressive usurpations of the King and 
Parliament of Great Britain on the rights and liberties of the People of the 
American Colonies had reduced them to the necessity of introducing a Government 
by Congresses and Committees, as temporary expedients, and to exist no longer 
than the grievances of the People should remain without redress,” it recited the 
resolution of the Congress of the Colony of New York, adopted May 31, including 
the resolution of the Continental Congress, relative to the institution of a new 
Government, and the Declaration of Independence, in order to demonstrate that the 
Sovereign had not only usurped unconstitutional powers, but had abdicated the 
lawful powers he possessed in England. The preamble then proceeded to declare 
that “ by virtue of which several acts, declarations and proceedings mentioned 
and contained in the aforesaid resolves or resolutions of the General Congress of 
the United American States and of the Congresses or Conventions of this State, 
all power whatever therein hath reverted to the People thereof, and this Conven¬ 
tion hath by their suffrages and free choice been appointed, and among other things 
authorized to institute and establish such a Government as they shall deem best 
calculated to secure the rights and liberties of the good People of this State, most 
conducive to the happiness and liberty of their constituents in particular, and of 
America in general. This Convention, in the name and by the authority of the 
good People of this State, doth ordain, determine and declare that no authority 
shall, on any pretense whatever, be exercised over the People or members of this 

State but such as shall be derived from and granted by them.” 

The Constitution aimed to vest the power of control in the People, and yet 
to guard against impulsive action in any direction, and to provide conservative 
checks upon every department or branch of the Government. The system of adminis¬ 
tration was a growth, a modification of the Colonial system, in order to secure 
the rights then claimed, and to guard against the evils experience had taught them 
to fear. I he General Assembly of the Colony had been the popular body, and 
the Assembly of the State* was to continue to be the direct agent of the People 

in executing their will; they being slow to learn that other agencies, if created 


*A detailed history of the Assembly, by Hon. George H. Sharpe, will appear in the second volume of this work. 
— Editor. 























THE COMMONWEALTH. 


45 


by them, would be equally obedient. Under the Colonial Government, agitation 
had been persistent to secure frequent elections; but the Crown, possessing the 
power to dissolve the Assembly at will, opposed frequent elections, in order that, 
in case a subservient Assembly was chosen, it could be continued in existence as 
long as possible. This came very convenient, when the Royalists secured a majority 
in the last General Assembly; for, if frequent elections had then been the system, 
the Royal majority would have been destroyed at the first opportunity. The State 
Constitution, therefore, provided for annual elections. The Council was succeeded 
by the Senate,* as a co-ordinate legislative body; and, in place of the absolute 
veto possessed by the Colonial Governor, there was substituted a qualified veto 
power, in the hands of a Council of Revision, composed of the Governor, Chancellor 
and Justices of the Supreme Court; the latter being the creatures of a Council of 
Appointment, the members of which were in time the creatures of the Assembly, 
thus securing the supremacy of that body, indirectly.f The power of appoint¬ 
ment, under the Colonial Constitution, was nominally vested in the hands of the 
Governor; but the Assembly had wrested it away from him, through its manipulation 
of the appropriation bills. A Council of Appointment, selected from the Senators 
by the Assembly, with the addition of the Governor, was now provided, thus insti¬ 
tuting checks with regard to the Executive machinery, which it was thought would 
work well, but which failed in practice. The Courts remained substantially the same, 
except that in place of the Governor and Council as the Court of Last Resort, 
there was substituted the Lieutenant-Governor and Senate with the Chancellor and 
Justice of the Supreme Court .% 

The Constitution was debated until April 20, when it was adopted, and an 
election was ordered to be held in June. John Jay and others thereupon issued 
a circular, dated June 2, recommending Philip Schuyler for Governor and George 
Clinton for Lieutenant-Governor. General Schuyler declined, because of the critical 
condition of affairs in his department; but the partial returns on file show that he 
had a plurality in the counties of Albany, Cumberland, Dutchess, Tryon, Ulster 
and Westchester; George Clinton receiving the next highest number of votes, 
followed by John Morin Scott and John Jay. Orange county voted for Clinton, 
and he was accordingly elected both Governor and Lieutenant-Governor. No 
elections were held in New York, Kings, Oueens, Suffolk and Richmond, those 
counties then being in the possession of the enemy. Brigadier-General Clinton, who 


*A detailed history of the Senate, by Hon. William H. Robertson, will be found elsewhere.— Editor. 
fThe growth and modification of the Legislature are shown in a sketch, elsewhere given, written by Mr. S. C. 
Hutchins. — Editor. 

% A detailed history of the Judiciary, by Mr. J. Irving Browne, under the supervision of Hon. Charles J. Folger, is given in 
the third volume of this work.— Editor. 



4 6 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


was a member both of the Continental Congress and the Provincial Congress, was 
in the field in command of the American forces on the lower Hudson, when the 
Convention was held. The returns were made to the Council of Safety July 9 

and Clinton took the oath of office on the 30th, the day that Burgoyne entered 

Fort Edward. 

The settlements in the interior of the State were in constant terror during 
these trying months. The patriots in the Mohawk valley were protected, in a 
measure, by the garrison at Fort Schuyler, under command of Gansevoort. In the 
spring, Brant appeared below Unadilla with a large body of warriors, and in June 
he ascended the Susquehanna to that place, the inhabitants fleeing before him. 
From Unadilla a war-path led to Kingston, and the British plan contemplated an 
incursion to the . Hudson, with the aid of the Tories of Ulster and Orange, at 
the proper time. After a conference with General Herkimer at Unadilla in June, 
Brant joined the British at Oswego. The safety of the inhabitants on the then 
frontier depended upon the possession of Fort Schuyler, which commanded the 
Mohawk valley and gave protection to the settlers at the South. This fort was 
invested by St. Leger on the 3d of August, with a large force of Canadians, 
Tories and Indians. A brave attempt to raise the siege was made by General 
Herkimer, which resulted, on the 7th, in the battle of Oriskany, the bloodiest 
encounter of the war, relative to the numbers engaged. The patriots were masters 

of the field, but the siege was not raised, and would not have been if General 

Schuyler had not taken the responsibility, against the protest of his Council, of 
sending relief. The hero who volunteered to save Fort Schuyler and thus save 
Mohawk valley, and Albany itself, was Benedict Arnold. He hastened up the 
valley, alarmed the Indians by successful strategy, and on the 22d of August the 
enemy broke up camp and precipitately fled to Oswego, and thence to Canada, 
the Indians plundering their allies as they went. The intelligence of this calamity, 
following the reverse at the battle near Bennington, which occurred on the 16th, 
discouraged Burgoyne, and aroused the spirits of the Americans. Three days before 
this decisive event, Gates relieved Schuyler of his command. 

Early in September, Gates moved up to Stillwater and fortified Bemis’ Heights, 
at a narrow part of the valley of the Hudson; and Burgoyne, on the nth, began 
to get his army in motion, leaving Fort Edward for the south. Both armies being 
ready for battle on the 19th, an engagement began, the advantages of which were 
won for the Americans by Arnold. The following morning, Burgoyne received a 
message from Sir Henry Clinton, son of the Colonial Governor, George Clinton, 
who was at New York, announcing that he was ready to move up the river. This 
he proceeded to do, and on Monday, the 6th of October, he appeared before the 
Highland forts, Clinton and Montgomery, the former commanded by James Clinton, 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


47 


and the latter by his brother, the Governor. The surrender of Fort Clinton having - 
been refused, an attack was opened simultaneously upon both forts, by armies and 
Beet, when both garrisons fled. Early on the morning of the 7th, the obstacles in 
the river between Fort Montgomery and Anthony’s Nose, which had cost a quarter 
of a million of dollars, were destroyed. That day Burgoyne hazarded another battle, 
which was won for the Americans by Arnold, although he had been relieved of 
command. Gates did not appear on the field. Burgoyne retreated ; and the British 
on the Hudson continued to push up the river, burning Kingston on the 13th. 
The same day, Burgoyne sent to Gates the preliminary note, which resulted in the 
capitulation on the 17th. The British on the lower Hudson, under Vaughan, had 
got as far as Livingston’s Manor, forty miles below Albany, when they heard news 
from the upper Hudson which decided them to return to the Highlands and thence 
to New York. 

The surrender of Burgoyne saved the Commonwealth. The Legislature, which 
had hastily adjourned its first meeting on the 1st of October, on the approach of 
the enemy, assembled in January, for its second meeting at Poughkeepsie, and 
thereafter the Government continued uninterruptedly. 

In March, 1778, an unsatisfactory conference was held with the Indians at 

Johnstown, and it very soon became evident that every settlement must be put in 
the best possible condition of defense. In May, Springfield, near the head of Otsego 
lake, was laid in ashes. In June, Cobleskill was plundered and burnt. The same 
month, the British forces were again concentrated at New York city, and Washing¬ 
ton’s head-quarters were established at White Plains. In July, a severe skirmish 

took place on the upper waters of the Cobleskill, and on the 5th of that month 

occurred the terrible tragedy at Wyoming, and about the middle of November the 
Cherry Valley massacre. In May, 1779, General Henry Clinton drove a garrison 
out of Stony Point; on the 1st of June Verplanck’s Point was bombarded and 

forced to surrender, and on the 15th of July General Wayne recaptured the fort 
at Stony Point. On the 29th of August, General Sullivan routed the Indians and 
Tories at Elmira, and awed them temporarily into submission. In April, the Indians 
renewed their attacks on the frontier settlements, extending their operations to 
Minisink, Orange county. On the 21st of May, Sir John Johnson appeared near 
Johnstown, which he had reached by the way of Crown Point and the valley of 
the Sacandaga. He ravaged the Mohawk valley for ten miles west of Tribes’ Hill, 
and hastily retreated to Canada, carrying with him the treasure and plate for which 
he had come. He was pursued by Governor Clinton, without effect. Early in 
August, Canajoharie was mercilessly desolated, and some twenty houses on the Nor¬ 
man’s Kill, in Albany county, were destroyed. The succeeding month came the 
exposure of Arnold’s attempt to betray West Point (to the command of which he 


48 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


was appointed July 31) into the hands of Sir Henry Clinton, who had returned 
to New York from a victorious Southern campaign. In October, occurred another 
expedition from Canada, under command of Carleton. Fort Ann was burned on 
the 10th, and Fort George was destroyed on the 11th, and Ballston was desolated. 
Another expedition entered the State by way of Niagara, crossed over from Oneida 
lake to the Susquehanna valley, thence to the Schoharie settlements, withdrawing 
down the valley toward the Mohawk after completing their devastations. They 
were pursued up the Mohawk valley by General Robert Van Rensselaer, and met 
near Palatine Bridge by Colonel Du Bois, who had been stationed at Fort Plain. 
The invaders were successful, Du Bois and thirty of his men being killed. Yan 
Rensselaer was joined by Governor Clinton, but they could not overtake the fugi¬ 
tives, who had done great damage during the invasion. Raids were also made at 
the North in 1781. In the summer of that year, Washington left his camp on 
the Hudson, and by forced marches proceeded to Virginia, where the war was 
practically closed with the capture of Cornwallis in October. On the 3d of Novem¬ 
ber, 1783, the final treaty of peace was made, and on the 25th Carleton evacuated 
New York city. The same day, General Washington and his troops, accompanied 
by Governor Clinton and the chief officers of State, took possession of the city. 

Notwithstanding the incessant harassing of the People, and the occupation of 
the city by the British, the State of New York, with a population slightly in excess 
of one hundred and sixty thousand, of whom thirty-two thousand five hundred were 
liable to military duty, furnished nearly eighteen thousand soldiers for the Conti¬ 
nental army—an excess of its quota by more than three thousand. 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


49 


CHAPTER XI. 


New York and the Union. — Early Colonial Associations. — The Confederation Sup¬ 
ported and Strengthened by the Commonwealth. — Movements in Behalf of a 
More Perfect Union. — Favored by New York.—Customs Duties Granted to the 
Confederation. — Their Collection by the State. — Weakness of the Confedera¬ 
tion.— Commercial Convention Called. — Federal Constitutional Convention.— 
Consideration of the New Constitution. — Opposition to its Adoption. — Its 
Ratification. — Amendments Proposed and Adopted. — Subsequent State Elec¬ 
tions. — The Federalists Sustained by the People. — Customs Revenues and 
Commercial Control Surrendered by New York for the Sake of the Union.— 
Also, Western Lands and the New Hampshire Grants. 


The People of the Colonies were awake to the importance of united action 
upon occasions of common danger; but at the same time they each had a natural 
pride in their own Commonwealth, with an equally natural jealousy of other Colonies. 
The first Confederacy formed on the Continent illustrates this. “ The united Colo¬ 
nies of New England” were “made all as one” in 1643, for purposes of protection 

against the Dutch, French and Indians, and to promote “the liberties of the Gospel 

in purity and peace.” Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven were 
united in this Confederacy, but Providence, Rhode Island and “ the People beyond 
the Piscataqua ” were excluded, for the reason, assigned with regard to the latter, 
that “they ran a different course, both in their ministry and civil administration;” in 
other words, it was a Puritan Confederacy. Connecticut demanded for each Colony 
a negative on the acts of the Confederation, but Massachusetts refused assent, 
while Plymouth led the way in determining that the acts of the Confederation 
should have no force until they were “ confirmed by a majority of the People.” 

Connecticut even undertook to levy a duty upon Springfield vessels passing Say- 

brook, which resulted in a vigorous remonstrance by Massachusetts, followed by a 
contest of over two years. 

Massachusetts, Plymouth and New York held a conference in 1690, to agree 
upon a plan for the invasion of Canada; and Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York 
and Pennsylvania held a conference with the Indians at Albany in 1745, at which a 
treaty was entered into with the Six Nations. In 1754, another council was held at 
the same place, which was participated in by New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Con¬ 
necticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Maryland. At this conference, Franklin 
proposed a plan of union which was rejected by the Crown because it gave too 

7 


50 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


much power to the People, and was regarded with disfavor by Radicals because it 
gave too much power to the Crown. It was opposed by the acting Governor of 
New York, De Lancey, who was the President of the Conference. William Smith, a 
member of the Council of New York, who was also a member of the Conference, 
subsequently proposed another plan, which met Granville’s approval, but was not 
submitted to Parliament. 

The sentiment in New York was always earnestly in favor of united action for 
common purposes ; but there was also strong opposition to any external government 
over the Colony or State. The People were opposed to the early attempts of the 
Crown to unite New York and New England under one Government; but when a 
common danger threatened all the Colonies, they were strongly in favor of a 
common defense against it. The opposition to confederated action had no support 
in New York. Its Representatives in the Continental Congress reflected the unani¬ 
mous will of the People of the State, in supporting the Articles of Confederation; 
but the outside resistance thereto was as strong as it seems now to have been 
indefensible. Debate dragged in the Continental Congress until November 15, 1777, 
when the Articles were adopted, and submitted to the States for ratification. They 
were ratified by the Legislature of New York February 6, 1778. Many amendments 
were proposed by other States; and, having been considered, the Articles were 
signed by the delegates of eight States on the 9th of July, 1778. Georgia, North 
Carolina, New Jersey and Delaware successively followed, so that twelve States had 
given their approval in February, 1779. Maryland withheld its assent until March, 
1781 ; and on the 2d of that month Congress met under the form of new Govern¬ 
ment, if that may be called a Government which does not possess the power to 
enforce its will. The Articles provided that “the Union shall be perpetual;” but 
so embarrassed was Congress by some of the States that there did not seem to be 
any Union. 

Meantime, discontent at the embarrassments thrown in the way of the Conti¬ 
nental Congress found expression. At a Convention held in Boston in August, 
1780, relative to the currency, at which New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Con¬ 
necticut were represented, it was declared to be essential to the power and 
prosperity of the country, “that the Union of these States be fixed in a more solid 
and permanent manner; that the powers of Congress be more clearly ascertained 
and defined; and that the important national concerns of the United States be 
under the superintendence and direction of one supreme head.” These views met 
with warm approval in New York. In his speech at the opening of the fourth 
session of the Legislature, September 7, Governor Clinton expressed his hearty 
concurrence and dwelt upon “ the defect of power in those who ought to exercise 
supreme direction.” Both Houses, in their addresses in response, united in the same 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


5i 

opinion. On the 23d it was decided to send delegates to a Convention to be held 
at Hartford the second Wednesday in November, “to give a vigor to the governing 
powers equal to the present crisis;” and on the 25th, Peter Schuyler, John Sloss 
Hobart and Egbert Benson were appointed the Commissioners. On the 10th of 
October it was “ Resolved, unanimously, that the delegates from this State be 
instructed to declare in Congress that it is the earnest wish of the State that Con¬ 
gress should, during the war, or until a perfected Confederation shall be completed, 
exercise every power which they may deem necessary for an effectual prosecution of 
the war ; and that, whenever it shall appear to them that any State shall be deficient 
in furnishing the quota of men, money, provisions or other supplies required of such 
State, that Congress direct the Commander-in-Chief, without delay, to march the 
army, or such part of it as may be requisite, into such State, and by a military 
force compel it to furnish its deficiency.” A second resolution directed the Commis¬ 
sioners to the Hartford Convention to propose that Congress be explicitly authorized 
and empowered thus to do. The Convention did not accomplish any thing; but 
the ratification of all the Articles by all the States followed, and was announced 
to the Legislature in a special message, March 19, 1781. In connection with this 
formation of the Confederacy, the old system of administration by boards and 
committees was abandoned by Congress, and departments with single heads were 
substituted. Robert R. Livingston became Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and General 
Alexander McDougall Secretary of Marine. 

The same year, in accordance with the recommendation of the Congress of the 
Confederation, an act was passed by the Legislature granting to the Confederated 
States the import duty received, at the port of New York, to be levied and col¬ 
lected “ under such penalties and regulations, and by such officers, as Congress 
should from time to time make, order and appoint.” This act encountered opposition 
from the friends of the State Administration, under the lead of Governor Clinton — 
who had been re-elected the previous year—it being claimed that the States were 
associated only for the purposes of mutual protection, and that New York ought 
not to surrender this source of revenue to the associated Commonwealths. In 
March, 1783, the act was repealed, and a new one passed granting the duties to the 
Confederated States, but providing for their collection by State officers; but this 
was subsequently amended so as to render the Collectors amenable to and removable 
under the authority of the Congress. John Lamb was appointed Collector March 
22, 1784, by the Council of Appointment, and in 1786 another law was passed, 
granting the revenue to Congress, but reserving to the State “ the sole power of 
levying and collecting the duties.” Congress treated the law as a nullity, and asked 
Governor Clinton to reassemble the Legislature for the reconsideration of the statute. 
This he declined to do ; and, having been elected Governor for the fourth time in 


52 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


1786, he submitted the question to the Legislature in 17^ 7 » an< ^ was sustained b.y a 
large majority. 

Meantime the weakness of the Confederation became more manifest each year. 
New York shared in the opinion that the League was inadequate for the purpose 
of protection, and on the 21st of July, 1782, the Legislature adopted a series of reso¬ 
lutions to that effect, and recommended “ the assembling of a General Convention 
of the United States, especially authorized to revise and amend the Confederation, 
reserving the right to the respective Legislatures to ratify their determination ; 
thus recognizing the Legislatures rather than the People as the ratifying authority. 
Nothing came from this, however, nor from the appointment, by resolution, March 
10, 1783, of Ezra L’Hommedieu, Ephraim Paine and John Lansing as Commissioners 
to a Conference at Hartford, 

Foreign governments treated the Confederation with contempt because it had no 
power over commercial affairs; and they held that consuls appointed by the States 
were the only proper representatives of the interests of this country. In this critical 
emergency, in 1785, General Washington proposed a Commercial Convention. In 
February, 1786, the Governor of Virginia addressed a letter on the subject, and 
on the 3d of March Congress adopted a resolution relative thereto, which was 
transmitted to the Legislature of New York by the Governor, March 26. This 
Convention was called for the purpose of considering the trade and commerce of 
the United States, and how far the common interest and permanent harmony might 
be promoted by a uniform system in their commercial intercourse, and was to report 
to the several States an act to enable Congress to secure the desired result. Egbert 
Benson, James Duane, Leonard Gansevoort, Alexander Hamilton, Robert C. Liv¬ 
ingston and Robert R. Livingston were named as such Commissioners from New 
York, in an act passed May 6, 1786; but Messrs. Benson and Hamilton only 
attended. The Convention was held at Annapolis, Maryland, September 11 to 
14, 1786, and strongly recommended that a General Convention be held in the 
ensuing May, for the purpose of framing a more efficient Union, and conferring 
enlarged powers on the Federal Congress. On the 17th of February, 1787, the 
Assembly of New York adopted a joint resolution instructing the Delegates of the 
State in Congress to move that a Convention be held for the purpose of so 
amending the Articles of Confederation as “to render them adequate to the preser¬ 
vation and support of the Union." There does not appear to have been any division 
in the House thereon, but in the Senate the resolution was agreed to, February 20, 
by a vote of ten to nine. An Assembly resolution providing for the appointment 
of delegates by this State came up in the Senate February 28, when Senator Yates 
moved to amend by providing that the new amendments should “ not be repugnant 
to or inconsistent with the Constitution of this State.” The vote on this amendment 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


53 


stood nine to nine, whereupon the Lieutenant-Governor, Pierre Van Cortlandt, 
voted in the negative, and it was lost. The resolution was then adopted, and on 
the 6th of March Robert \ ates, John Lansing, Jr., and Alexander Hamilton were 
appointed delegates “ for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of 
Confederation, and reporting to Congress and the several Legislatures such altera¬ 
tions and provisions therein as shall, when agreed to in Congress and confirmed 
by the several States, render the Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies 
of Government and the preservation of the Union.” 

The Federal Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia, on the second 
Monday in May, 1787, and on the 17th of September concluded its work. Messrs. 
Yates and Lansing withdrew from the Convention, leaving Hamilton as the only 
delegate from this State who signed the new Constitution. The Convention then 
recommended to Congress that the Constitution be submitted to Conventions in each 
State, chosen by the People thereof, called by the respective Legislatures. The 
Constitution was transmitted to Congress by George Washington, President of the 
Convention, with a letter commending the same. Congress adopted a resolution, 
September 28, referring the new Constitution to the various Legislatures for submis¬ 
sion to the People of the respective States. 

The Assembly of New York, on the 31st of January, 1788, adopted a joint 
resolution providing for a State Convention. Mr. Schoonmaker moved to amend 
the preamble, by including a more comprehensive statement of facts, and by reciting 
that the proposed organic law does “materially alter the Constitution and Government 
of this State, and greatly affects the rights and privileges of the People thereof; ” 
which motion was lost, twenty-five to twenty-seven. The resolution, as it passed the 
H ouse, was concurred in by the Senate, February 1, ten to eight. The Convention 
met at Poughkeepsie, June 17, and adjourned July 26. Governor Clinton presided 
over the Convention. Alexander Hamilton and Robert R. Livingston were the 
ablest advocates of the new Constitution, and Melancton Smith its strongest oppo¬ 
nent. It soon became apparent that the Constitution would not meet the approval 
of the majority of the Convention, unless amended; and its opponents proposed 
to ratify it “ on condition ” that certain propositions be submitted to a General 
Convention. Debate continued for several weeks, evidently with the purpose of 
postponing action until decision was reached in Virginia, where the result was 
regarded as doubtful. In July information was officially received that Virginia and 
New Hampshire had approved the new Constitution, thus completing the number of 
States necessary to its adoption ; whereupon the Federalists offered a resolution 
“that the Constitution be ratified, in full confidence that the amendments proposed 
by this Convention will be adopted.” The resolution was adopted by a vote of 
thirty to twenty-seven ; eight members, including Governor Clinton, declining to vote. 


54 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


A motion was lost, reserving to New York the right to withdraw its ratification 
unless its recommendations were adopted. 

The proposed amendments and a Bill of Rights were appended to the resolu¬ 
tion ; and a circular letter, drawn up by Mr. Jay, was addressed to the People of the 
other States, requesting them to co-operate with New York in securing the adoption 
of the amendments. In his address to the Legislature in December, Governor 
Clinton said: “ A declaration of rights with certain explanations are inserted, in 
order to remove doubtful constructions, and to guard against an undue and improper 
administration, and that it was assented to in the express confidence that the exercise 
of different powers would be suspended until it [the Constitution] should undergo a 

revision by a General Convention of the States.nothing short of the fullest 

confidence of obtaining such revision could have prevailed upon a sufficient number 
to have ratified it without stipulating for previous amendments.” At the first session 
of the first Congress, amendments were proposed substantially attaining the objects 
sought by New York, the preamble reciting that, “the Conventions of a number of 
the States having at the time of their adopting the Constitution expressed a desire, 
in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory 
or restrictive clauses should be added.” Ten of these amendments were ratified by 
the Legislature, March 27, 1790, and another September 21, 1791. Meantime, the 
first really contested election occurred in the State, Governor Clinton being chosen 
for the fifth time, in 1789, by a vote of 6,391 against 5,962 for Robert Yates, who 
had been a radical opponent of the Federal Constitution. A majority of the 
members of the Legislature chosen at the same election were Federalists; and 
as the vote on Governor was regarded at the time as largely matter of locality and 
personal preference, the general result was received as an approval of the Federative 
policy — a conclusion which the subsequent election justified. It was held in 1792, 
three years after the inauguration of Washington. The candidates were George 
Clinton and John Jay, the latter the Federal nominee and the former the Anti- 
Federal candidate. John Lamb had been continued as Collector of the port by 
President Washington, and Federal influence was employed in behalf of Jay, as that 
of the State administration was used in favor of Clinton. Jay received a majority 
of all the votes returned as having been cast; but there were alleged informalities 
in the counties of Clinton, Otsego and Tioga. The question as to their disposition 
was submitted to the two Senators from this State, Rufus King and Aaron Burr, 
the former of whom had been chosen by the Federal Legislature of 1789, and the 
latter by the Anti-Federal Legislature of 1791, to succeed Philip Schuyler. The 
Senators disagreed ; whereupon, a majority of the joint committee of the Legislature, 
who were then canvassers, decided to reject the votes of those counties, thus securing 
the re-election of Clinton by a majority of one hundred and eight. Mr. Jay was 



THE COMMONWEALTH. 


55 


chosen Governor at the two successive elections. The State was very close, as 
between the two political parties ; but the sentiment of the People was undoubtedly 
favorable to the change which had been effected, and there was general acquiescence 
therein, after the adoption of the amendments. 

By the ratification of the P'ederal Constitution, New York surrendered its control 
over the revenues of the ports within its boundaries, and gave up its Admiralty 
jurisdiction, in order to cement New England and the South in one indestructible 
Union. The result has abundantly vindicated its wisdom. On the other hand, the 
opposition of the Anti-Federalists resulted in the removal of doubts with regard to 
the Constitution, which was necessary in order to accurately define the scope of Fed¬ 
eral authority. The manner in which the question was considered and disposed of 
illustrates the breadth, candor and devotion to fixed principle and permanent inter¬ 
ests of the founders of the Commonwealth, in both political parties. 

Two other acts remain to be noticed, as attesting the devotion of New York 
. to the Union. The claim of the State to extended territorial jurisdiction rested on 
higher grounds than that of any other Commonwealth, in one respect. Under the 
Dutch, its boundaries were, the Connecticut on the one side and the Delaware on 
the other, by virtue of discovery, purchase from the Indians, priority of possession, 
conquest, and actual occupation. The English succeeded to this title by conquest 
and treaty, and restricted the limits of the Commonwealth on the seacoast. They, 
also, succeeded to rights the Dutch had acquired from the Iroquois, the ruling race 
of the Continent, and strengthened their title by new alliances and fresh treaties. 
The jurisdiction thus acquired was, so far as the English were concerned, vested 
in the State Government established and maintained by the People when authority 
reverted to them ; and was extended when the hostile portion of the Iroquois and 
other Indians, with whom the Commonwealth had thus far been on the friendly 
relations of equal allies, broke the alliance, took sides with the British, were 
defeated in the war they had declared, and fled to Canada, with the enemies of 
the State. To New York, also, belonged all British lands not granted to other 
proprietary or chartered Provinces. By virtue of Royal grant and Indian conquest, 
therefore, New York became entitled to claim a jurisdiction co-extensive with British 
power and Iroquois sway, except as expressly limited, and thus had undoubted claim 
to extended western lands; but it surrendered its rights to the Confederation, by 
an act passed February 19, 1780, for which it received the formal acknowledgment 
of the Continental Congress, in the adoption of a report September 6 of the same 
year. 

The territory of the Colonies of Connecticut and Massachusetts, under their 
charters, extended to the “ South Sea,” or Pacific ocean. This sweeping grant, 
however, was nullified by the title of the Dutch to the territory between the Con- 


56 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


necticut and the Delaware; and by the transfer of that title to the English by 
treaty, and to the Duke of York by grant; and the boundary was finally fixed upon 
a line parallel with the Hudson river, and twenty miles eastward of that stream. 
The territory of New Hampshire originally extended “sixty miles into the interior;” 
but, under the commission of Benning Wentworth, who was Governor from 1741 to 
1767, it included all the territory “to the boundaries of His Majesty’s other Prov¬ 
inces.” Under this general clause, Governor Wentworth issued patents west of the 
Connecticut, in 1749, and continued to issue them thereafter. The authorities of 
New York, however, claimed that under the grant to the Duke of York the jurisdic¬ 
tion of this Colony extended to the Connecticut, except as it was expressly agreed 
to otherwise, as was the case with regard to the boundary between Connecticut and 
Massachusetts. An appeal was had to the Crown, and the King decided in favor 
of New York in 1764. The decision was acquiesced in by Governor Wentworth and 
the people of the New Hampshire Grants, as the territory between Lake Champlain 
and the Connecticut river was called. The Colonial Government of New York, 
most unjustly, refused to acknowledge the title of settlers to lands they had acquired, 
and issued new patents therefor. This led to another appeal to the King, who, in 
1767, issued an order directing the Government of New York to stop issuing land 
patents within the territory; but, unfortunately, the question of the conflicting 
patents was not authoritatively disposed of. A violent controversy ensued. In 
January, 1777, a Convention was held at Windsor, and declared “the Grants” an 
independent State, by the name of Vermont; but the Continental Congress refused 
to recognize the new Government. In 1781, the Congress of the Confederation 
offered to admit Vermont as a State, but as the offer was accompanied by reduced 
boundaries, it was rejected. Ten years later, a Convention was held at Bennington, 
and the Federal Constitution was adopted. New York accepted the nominal sum of 
$30,000 in settlement of its claim, and Vermont was admitted as a State into the 
Union. This wise disposition of a bitter controversy again illustrated the willingness 
of the Commonwealth to make any sacrifice necessary to the general welfare. 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


57 


CHAPTER XII. 

New York under the Articles of Confederation. — Condition During the War.— 
Civil Divisions. — Population after the Adoption of the Federal Constitution. — 
Topography. — Natural Resources of the Commonwealth. — The Actual Fron¬ 
tiers.— Treaties with the Indians. — Adjustment with Massachusetts. — Condition 
of Central and Western New York.— Relative Position of the States in the 
Union. — Geological Formations. 

The State of New York, at its organization, gave no other promise of its future 
greatness than that afforded by its natural advantages, and the superior equipoise of 
its representative men. Inferior in population, it was superior only in undeveloped 
resources, and in those qualities of climate which science teaches us are best 
adapted to the production of leading and ruling races. 

Manhattan island presented no sign of the great wealth which was soon to be 
concentrated upon it. The sailor casting anchor in Kip’s bay, on the East river, 
would have had in view the same groves that greeted the sight of Hendrick Kip, 
when he first landed there ; and there, in full view, was the country seat of Jacobus 
Kip, with pleasant meadows about it, forming a striking contrast to what is now 
the crowded neighborhood of Thirty-fourth street and Second avenue. Jacobus Kip, 
of Kipsburgh, led his own tenantry as Royal cavalry during the war; and Wash¬ 
ington made his house his head-quarters when in the city, while on the rocky point 
near by Howe landed September 15, 1776, and drove the Americans from behind 
the dwelling. The city was about a mile in length, by half a mile in width, but 
was surpassed by Philadelphia, in the numbers of its people and the consequence of 
the place. The fire of 1776 left as blackened ruins five hundred dwellings along 
Broadway, from Whitehall to Rector street, and another, in 1778, consumed three 
hundred houses, leaving burnt districts with their unsightly skeletons to disfigure 
the city. The fashionable people lived on Wall and Pearl streets, and open fields 
stretched all the way up the island. Fortifications surrounded the city, guns bristled 
on the yet unleveled hills, and breastworks skirted the river. On Staten island 
were luxuriant forests. Brooklyn heights were strongly fortified, and a small village 
marked the site of the future City of Churches; while older and more thriving 
villages indicated the garden spots of Long island. Westchester county, north of 
Manhattan island, was one of the most inviting and prosperous rural districts on 
the continent. The soil was largely owned by Tory proprietors, who leased it 
in small farms. The most of the gentry around the city, indeed, were Tories, 

8 


58 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


and took refuge in New York from their patriot neighbors. Thus, while the 
Whigs fled from the city, the Tories came in, and women and children were sent 
there for safety, from as far even as Albany. 1 his influx continued down to the 
close of the war, when many of the Tories became refugees from the State. The 
entire population of New York, Kings, Richmond and Westchester, in i 79 °> was 
only 65,464. 

Long island has a low range of drift hills on the north, an ocean beach on 
the south, and a strip of coarse, gravelly land through the center. The population 
of Kings county in 1790 was only 4,495, and the population of the remainder of 
the island was 32,454. Staten island had a population of 3,835. The entire popu¬ 
lation of the State, south of the northern boundary of Westchester county, was only 

97 > 9 i8 - 

The great Appalachian mountain system had an important influence in the 
formation of the remainder of the State. The Blue Ridge range, which extends 
across New lersey, is broken upon entering New York into several mountainous eleva¬ 
tions. This region, west of the Hudson, constituted Orange county. On the east of 
the river, beginning at the Highlands, the elevation continues, until the Taghkanic 
mountains appear. These mountains extend along the eastern boundary of the State, 
connecting with the Berkshire mountains of Massachusetts. The range also stretches 
away toward Lake Champlain, where it is divided by the basin to the south of the 
lake, one branch sloping off dividing the waters of the valley of the Hudson from 
those of the lake, and the other extending into western Vermont. 

Dutchess county originally comprised all of the territory on the east side of the 
Hudson between Westchester and Albany. The Dutch settled at Rhinebeck before 
1690, and subsequently a considerable number of Trench Huguenots located in the 
county. This region was associated with Ulster until 1713. Livingston manor, in 
the northern part of this region, was annexed to Albany in 1717, and in 1786 
Columbia county was organized. The territory within the boundaries of the latter 
was settled by tenantry about 1700, and by German Palatines in 1710. The East- 
Hudson section of the State is very inviting; the agricultural lands being fertile, the 
scenery along the river charming, and the Taghkanic mountains rich in iron ore. 
This section of the State suffered little during the Revolution, being occupied by 
the British, for a short time only. The population of the two counties into which it 
was organized in 1790 was 72,998. 

The Blue Ridge mountains, upon their entry into this State, not only extend 
easterly to the Highlands on the Hudson, but north-easterly, the latter range being 
known as the Shawangunk mountains. The Allegheny mountains proper curve to 
the east in Pennsylvania, and terminate on the Susquehanna. From the easterly 
bank of that river, an irregular range of mountains extends into New York, con- 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


59 


necting with the Shawangunk, and passing on to the Hudson, where it becomes 
known as the Catskills, a spur of the latter extending up the river until it terminates 
with the precipitous sides of the Helderbergs. The range nearest the Susquehanna 
curves around that stream, separating its tributaries from those of the Delaware, 
Hudson and Mohawk, sending one spur to the latter stream at "the Noses,” west 
of Schoharie creek, and another to Little Falls, the Mohawk having evidently forced 
its way through the chain at these points, at an early age. The hills on the north 
side of the river are equally high, and extend, in continuation of the Allegheny 
range, to the Adirondacks. The Blue Ridge series in this State contain enormous 
quantities of bluestone and water limestone, of the best quality; while in the Adi¬ 
rondacks are inexhaustible beds of iron ore. The lumber interest in both regions, and 
in the elevated region in the south-west, is very great. Unrivaled water-power exists 
in every section, and was largely in use until long after the introduction of steam. 

The most southerly portion of the Blue Ridge series in this State was originally 
organized as Orange county, and the territory adjacent as Ulster county. Orange 
county was originally settled by Germans and Dutch. It suffered severely during 
the French and Indian war, in 1755, but fared better during the Revolution, Brant’s 

raid upon the Minisink being the only serious trouble. Ulster was originally 

settled by the Dutch, who established a trading post at Rondout in 1614, and 

followed it with other settlements. Ulster was ravaged many times by the Indians, 

from the wars under the Dutch to the close of the Revolution. The population of 
Orange and Ulster in 1790 was 47,889. 

The remainder of the State was under the general jurisdiction of Albany until 
1772, when the northern portion was set off as Charlotte and the western as Tryon. 
The population of Albany county in 1790 was 75,736. 

When the territory included in the county of Charlotte, between Albany county 
and Lake Champlain, first became known to the whites, the native Indian tribes had 
mostly disappeared, probably because the war-paths which traversed it were so fre¬ 
quently visited that the country was devastated and deserted. It was rapidly settled 
after the Revolution, by immigrants from New England, Scotland and Ireland. The 
name of Charlotte county was changed to Washington in 1784, and the eastern part 
was ceded to Vermont in 1790. In 1788, the northern part of the State, from Lake 
Champlain to the River St. Lawrence, was erected into a county by the name of 
Clinton, but the entire white population in 1790 was only 1,614, and the county did 
not send a separate representative to the Assembly until 1796. The population of 
Washington and Clinton in 1790 was 15,656. 

The name of Tryon county was changed to Montgomery in 1784. The Mohawk 
valley had been settled by Dutch at an early date. The Palatines entered the 
valley of the Schoharie in 1711, and from thence removed to the Mohawk. Scotch 


6o 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


Highlanders also immigrated, and several English settlements were formed on the 
headwaters of the Susquehanna. The central and western portions of the State were 
occupied exclusively by Indians. 

From the base of the Allegheny mountains in Pennsylvania, near the Susque¬ 
hanna, there stretches an elevated undulating plateau across New York to the Adiron- 
dacks, and thence between the St. Lawrence and those mountains, entirely around them 
to Lake Champlain. This plateau has the Blue Ridge series for its eastern foundation 
and wall, and north of the headwaters of the Susquehanna it connects with the 
irregular range which follows the course of that winding stream from Pennsylvania 
to the highlands south of the Mohawk. This extended plateau is frequently varied 
by high hills, and reaches a considerable altitude in the center of the State, west 
of the Unadilla, an affluent of the Susquehanna. It is drained to the south by the 
Susquehanna and its tributaries, and has on its western border, within the State, a 
series of small limpid lakes, which drain through the Seneca and Oswego rivers into 
Lake Ontario. This extended plateau is throughout one of the finest grazing regions 
in the world. 

Under the first State Constitution no land could be purchased from the Indians 
except by Commissioners acting under authority of the State. The first Commis¬ 
sioners were appointed in 1779, but they took no active steps until 1783, and their 
first treaty was entered into at Fort Schuyler (Stanwix) in September, 1784. The 
western branch of the Delaware river then formed the western boundary of Ulster 
county. By a treaty at Fort Schuyler, November 5, 1786, a Property line was 
established, beginning at the Pennsylvania border and following the river for a 
distance, thence to the Unadilla river, and up that stream to its source, and thence 
by a direct line to a point on Wood creek, seven miles west of Fort Schuyler 
(Rome), and it was agreed that no settlement should be formed beyond the 
Property line without a formal cession by the acknowledged owners of the soil. The 
Oneidas and Tuscaroras, who lived on the frontiers of the white settlements, had 
been the firm friends of the American cause, but the Indians west of the Property 
line, the Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas, were attached to British interests. By 
subsequent treaties the lands passed rapidly into possession of the whites. The 
Property line was, practically, the western frontier of the infant State. The northern 
frontier was, practically, the valley of the Sacondaga river, a tributary of the 
Hudson, which runs north of the Mohawk, and in the same general direction. 
During the Revolution the Indians passed up the valley to Stony creek, one of the 
affluents of the Sacondaga, thence to the headwaters of the Garoga creek, and then 
down the latter to the Mohawk. The two creeks flowed through one valley, the 
one northerly, and the other southerly. Oswego was then a trading post in the 
Indian country. 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


61 

The dispute between Massachusetts and New York, with regard to the title to 
lands, was settled in the same year that the Property line was established (1786), 
and a line, known as the Pre-emption line, was drawn from the point now consti¬ 
tuting the south-east corner of Steuben county, to and along the west shore of 
Seneca lake, and thence to Sodus bay on Lake Ontario, and the right of Massachu¬ 
setts to the soil west of this line was conceded, while the sovereignty over it was 
confirmed in the State of New York. The following year (1787) Massachusetts sold 
the whole tract, containing about six millions of acres, to Oliver Phelps and 
Nathaniel Gorham, for $1,000,000, but about two-thirds of the tract reverted to 
the State, and was subsequently sold to Richard Morris, and by him to a 
company of capitalists from Amsterdam, Holland, in consequence of which, the 
tract thus sold became known as the Holland purchase. The country, from the 
south-east corner of the region west of the Pre-emption line, gradually increases in 
elevation westward until it rises to a considerable altitude, constituting a watershed 
from which streams flow south-easterly to the Susquehanna, south-westerly to the Ohio, 
and northerly to Lake Ontario. An upland region also extends from the Central 
plateau north-westerly around and west of the lakes which flow into Seneca river, 
gradually sloping to a level ridge along Lake Ontario. From the southern high¬ 
lands the Genesee river courses its way downward to Lake Ontario. The entire 
section is one of the best grain-growing regions in the world, while upon its 
southern slopes the vine bears luxuriantly. It was organized as Ontario county in 
1789, but did not appear in the Assembly by distinct representation until 1792. Its 
white population in 1790 was only 1,075. The region between the Pre-emption and 
Property lines, constituting the south-western portion of the Central plateau with the 
basin at the north-west drained by the Oswego river, was included in Montgomery 
county, which county had a population in 1790 of 28,848. The entire population 
of the State west of the Blue Ridge series, in 1790, was only 29,923. 

The population of the entire State in 1790 was only 340,120, of which nearly 
one-fifth was concentrated in Albany county, the population of which was largely in 
excess of that of the entire region around New York bay, including Westchester. 
The East-Hudson region came next, and the entire population west of the Hudson 
to the lakes was only slightly in excess of the population of the region between 
Westchester and Albany. New York was fifth in point of population among the 
States of the Union, being exceeded, in order, by Virginia, Pennsylvania, North 
Carolina and Massachusetts. The population of the State had more than doubled in 
the preceding twenty years; and it more than quadrupled during the next thirty years. 

The geological structure of New York is of superior interest, as it affords an 
opportunity to examine in detail and over great areas, the Laurentian, Cambrian, 
Silurian and Devonian systems. The Adirondacks are of Laurentian age, and 


62 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


adjoining, on the north and north-west, is a Cambrian area, known as the Potsdam 
group, in which the Potsdam sandstone occurs, fringed by a calciferous sandstone, 
also Cambrian, which extends from Lake Ontario to and along the north side of 
the Mohawk, thence to the upper Hudson and Lake Champlain, and around to 
the St. Lawrence up to the place of beginning. d he Laurentian system is also 
found on both sides of the Hudson at the Highlands, and extending from thence 
through Putnam and Dutchess counties to Connecticut. The mountains on the 
eastern border of the State are midway between the Laurentian and Cambrian, the 
formation being metamorphic in character and extending on the north to the Green 
mountains and on the south through Westchester to Manhattan island. This area 
is bordered on both sides of the Hudson, from Lake Champlain to Westchester, by 
rocks of a Cambrian age, which extend south-west to New Jersey, and to the north 
and north-west through the Mohawk and Black river regions to Lake Ontario and 
the St. Lawrence. This area abounds in limestones, metamorphic east of the 
Hudson, and in the Mohawk and Black river regions varied and valuable. Over- 
lying the Cambrian system, in the center of the State, there stretches westward a 
Middle Silurian area, known successively, beginning at the north, as the Medina 
sandstone, the Clinton group, the Niagara group and the Onondaga salt group. 
This area at the west extends from Lake Ontario to the outlet of Lake Erie, but 
grows narrower toward the east until the Cambrian deposits in the Mohawk Valley 
are reached, where these formations thin out. A narrow Upper Silurian fringe 
(known as the Lower Helderberg) extends from the Helderbergs in Albany west 
to Cayuga lake, and also south to Catskill, where it stretches south-west to the 
Delaware river, at the extreme northerly point of New Jersey. The Devonian 
system, composed of grits and limestones, and known as the Upper Helderberg, 
stretches from Albany west to Lake Erie. The upper limestones of this group 
constitute a great coral reef which continues to Indiana, and there curves southward 
to Kentucky, and is nine hundred miles in length. This Lower Devonian area is 
bordered by the Hamilton group of shales and limestones, which stretches from the 
New Jersey border northeasterly to the vicinity of Albany, and thence westerly through 
the heart of the State to Lake Erie, and including the basin of the interior lakes. 
The portion of Western New York south of this Middle Devonian border, known 
as the Portage and Chemung groups, is of Upper Devonian age, and a narrow area 
continues through the State, following the course of the Hamilton group around to 
the State line. The region thus inclosed, comprising portions of Ulster, Sullivan, 
Delaware and Schoharie counties, is known as the Catskill group, and is of Upper 
Devonian age. A portion of Rockland county belongs to the new red sandstone 
period. Long island and a portion of Staten island are of drift formation, and 
are a modified condition of a terminal moraine, originating in the glacial period. 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


6 3 


CHAPTER XIII. 


Fundamental Principles and Policies of the Commonwealth.-—Religious Liberty and 
Equality. — Freehold Suffrage.—Encouragement of Immigration.—Free Lands.— 
Rapid Settlement. — Canals and Highways. — Tpie First Steamboat. — New York 
Becomes the First State in the Union. — Education. — The Salt Springs. — George 
Clinton and John Jay. — A Federal-Republican Policy.—Abolition of Slavery.— 
Currency and Banks. 


The framers of the State Constitution were compelled to meet and overcome 
the prejudice against members of the Catholic Church which prevailed throughout 
the Colonial period to such an extent that they were not permitted to vote. This 
prejudice was greatly abated by the patriotic conduct of citizens of that faith during 
the war of the Revolution, and the affranchisement of Catholics naturally followed. 
The following provision was also incorporated in the Constitution : “ And, whereas, 
we are required, by the benevolent principles of rational liberty, not only to expel 
civil tyranny, but also to guard against that spiritual oppression and intolerance 
wherewith the bigotry and ambition of weak and wicked princes have scourged 
mankind : This Convention doth further, in the name and by the authority of the 
good People of this State, ordain, determine and declare, that the free exercise of 
religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever 
hereafter be allowed within this State, to all mankind. Provided, that the liberty of 
conscience hereby granted shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentious¬ 
ness, or justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of the State.” 

The founders of the State Government had time to institute valuable reforms, 
notwithstanding the distracted condition of affairs. At the beginning of the State 
Government, sixteen different crimes were punishable with death ; but the number 
was reduced to three in 1787. During the Revolution, also, jurisprudence was 
improved, primogeniture and entails extinguished, and liberty relieved from arbitrary 
restraint. 

Governor Clinton’s administration was distinguished for its promotion of immi¬ 
gration— indeed, so zealous was he in this direction that he was charged with 
interested motives, as is usually the case with public servants who show zeal to 
promote the general welfare. The waste and unappropriated lands were thrown 
open to settlers to such an extent that, while in 1784 the estimated acreage of 
improved lands in the State was one million, there had been sold 5,542,173 acres in 
1791, for which the State received $1,030,433. Some of these lands were sold as 


/ 


6 4 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


low as six cents per acre, which gave rise to the charge against the Governor. The 
income was applied to the payment of debts, and the surplus was invested. In 
1796, General Schuyler submitted a plan for the improvement of the finances of the 
State, whereby the surplus revenues might be made to accumulate to several mil¬ 
lions of dollars. The plan included the creation of the office of Comptroller, as 
the chief fiscal officer of the State, which was done. 

The settlement of the State proceeded so rapidly that in 1791 Albany and 
Montgomery counties were divided. The portion of Albany county east of the 
Hudson was erected into a separate county, called Rensselaer, and the portion 
north of the Mohawk river was set off as Saratoga county. Montgomery county 
was divided into four counties. At the south, the portion east of the Property line 
was formed into Otsego county; the region between the Property and Pre-emption 
lines was termed Tioga county, and the section to the north Herkimer county, 
leaving the north-eastern portion of the original area to Montgomery county. 

Albany, which was the seat of the Indian trade throughout the Colonial period, 
continued to be the center of trade for the interior of the Commonwealth. In the 
winter time, merchandise was transported hundreds of miles by sleighs. In the 
summer, poor as was navigation in the Mohawk by reason of bars and rifts, the 
river was preferable to poorer roads for the transportation of goods. The feasibility 
of improving its navigation had been considered for many years. It was suggested 
by Governor Tryon in 1774; and in 1776 General Philip Schuyler, who conceived 
the idea in 1761, proposed to secure water communication between New York and 
Quebec, by connecting Hudson river with Lake Champlain through the improvement 
of the Northern Wood creek. In the autumn of 1788, Mr. Elkanah Watson formed 
the project of providing a water communication between the Hudson river and Lake 
Ontario by means of a canal from the Mohawk to the Western Wood creek, an 
affluent of Oneida lake, and thence through that lake and the Oneida and Oswego 
rivers to the mouth of the latter. These two routes had been the lines of Indian 
canoe communication from the earliest times, and their improvement was at once 
begun. Watson conferred with Schuyler at Albany, and in 1791 submitted to him 
the manuscript of a pamphlet setting forth the merits and feasibility of the project. 
The same year, in accordance with the recommendation of Governor Clinton, an act 
was passed “ concerning roads and inland navigation,” providing for surveys; and 
the following year two companies—Northern and Western — were chartered for the 
purpose of making the improvement, and General Schuyler was unanimously chosen 
President of each. Thomas Eddy, who was the Treasurer of the western company, 
devised a plan for uniting the Mohawk and Seneca rivers ; the route was surveyed 
on the completion of the original improvement in 1796, and the canal speedily con¬ 
structed. This was the germ of the great Erie canal. 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


65 


The material growth of the State continued, under this fostering policy. Ship¬ 
building was brought to great perfection, and the Hudson was filled with various 
kinds of craft. New York city nearly doubled in population from 1790 to 1800, but 
the adjoining counties did not keep even pace with her, although showing steady 
growth. The population within the old areas of Albany and Washington increased 
considerably between 1790 and 1800. The growth of the central part of the State, 
however, was remarkable. In 1794, Onondaga was formed from Herkimer; in 1798, 
Oneida from Onondaga, and Chenango from Herkimer and Tioga; in 1799, Cayuga 
from Oneida. The population of the counties within the old area of Montgomery, in 
1800, was 126,956 — an increase of 98,108. In 1795, Schoharie was formed from 
Albany and Otsego; in 1797, Delaware from Ulster and Otsego; in 1798, Rockland 
from Orange; in 1800, Greene from Albany and Ulster. The West-Hudson region 
had a population in 1800 of 93,673 — an increase of 45,784. The tide of immigration 
had begun to flow into Western New York in 1800, the population being 17,006. 
The southern portion was organized into a separate county in 1796, named Steuben, 
but the population in 1800 was only 1,785. At the beginning of the century, the 
aggregate population of the State was 589,051, and it had become third in popula¬ 
tion among the States in the Union, Virginia and Pennsylvania only exceeding it. 
The capital was removed to Albany in 1797, and with the opening of the nineteenth 
century a new era began. 

The first ten years of the present century were marked by the continued rapid 
growth of the State. The population of New York and adjacent counties increased 
about fifty per cent ; that of the east end of Long island improved somewhat; and 
the East-Hudson region remained about stationary. In the Blue Ridge region, 
west of the Hudson, Sullivan was set off from Ulster in 1809, an d the a gg re & ate 
population of all the counties increased some twenty thousand. In 1809, also, 
Schenectady was set off from Albany, and the population of all the counties within 
the original territory of the latter in 1810 was 158,700 — an increase of 69,682 in ten 
years. St. Lawrence county was set off from Clinton in 1802, and Franklin in 1808. 
The population of Northern New York trebled during the decade, being 27,981 in 
1810. The heaviest current of immigration, of course, was westward. Seneca was set 
off from Cayuga in 1804; Jefferson and Lewis from Oneida in 1805; Madison 
from Chenango, and Broome from Tioga in 1806. The population of the central 
section, from the Pennsylvania border to the St. Lawrence, in 1810, was 266,756 — 
a gain of more than one hundred per cent. To the west, south of Lake Ontario, 
Genesee was set off from Ontario in 1802, and Niagara in 1808, and the population 
of the three counties on this Ontario upland in 1810 was 63,591—an increase of 
46,585. South of these counties were Steuben and Allegany (organized in 1806), 


9 


66 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


with a combined population of 9,188 — an increase of 7,400. Cattaraugus and 
Chautauqua were organized in 1808, but they do not appear in the census. The State 
was now second in population among the States of the Union — Virginia being first. 
The aggregate population was 959,049, and yet, the garden of the Commonwealth 
had scarcely been reached, for access to it was exceedingly difficult. 

The public spirit and services of the State and its citizens now became avail¬ 
able in giving powerful impetus to the further development of the Commonwealth. 
In 1807, Robert Fulton made the first trip with the steamboat he had invented, on 
the Hudson river, between New York and Albany; and in 1818, a steamboat made 
the voyage between New York and New Orleans. In 1810, a Commission was 
appointed to survey a route for a canal to Lake Erie; on the 16th of April, 

1816, Commissioners of Construction were appointed, and on the 15th of April, 

1817, the principal State officers, other than the Governor, were constituted 
Commissioners of the Canal Fund. In connection with these great improvements 
there had been inaugurated a thorough turnpike system; and the effect of these 
highways, kept in excellent condition as they were, was felt in every section of 
the State, the development of the central and western portions being very remark¬ 
able. The East-Hudson counties showed a decided impulse, also, gaining over 
twelve thousand in population. It was during this period (in 1812) that Putnam 
was organized. The counties below the Highlands exhibited a healthy increase, but 
the gain was not as great as during the preceding decade. The Blue Ridge, 
Albany and Northern New York regions also gained, but, except the percentage 
of increase in the latter section, the growth was not exceptional. The only 
new county organized was Warren, which was set off from Washington in 1813. 
Immigration still poured into the central counties, the population reaching 456,161, 
an increase of 189,405, or nearly one hundred per cent. Western New York 
advanced from 72,779 to 217,299 — a gain of 144,520, or two hundred per cent. Of 
this gain, the southern counties had 38,789, which was an increase of over four 
hundred per cent. The counties on the Ontario upland, over which the Erie 
canal was soon to run, advanced from 63,591 to 169,322. In 1821, Erie was 
organized from Niagara, and Livingston and Monroe from Genesee and Ontario; 
in 1823, Yates was set off from Ontario, and Wayne from Ontario and Seneca; and 
in 1824, Orleans was formed from Genesee. The Erie canal was completed through 
these counties in 1825. The census of 1820, however, demonstrated that New York 
had become the first State in population, the aggregate being 1,372,111. It 
continued to increase rapidly, and some new counties were organized thereafter ; but 
it attained the growth of young manhood in 1825, when the canal was completed. 
It was opened on the 26th of October, and De Witt Clinton, the Governor, received 
a grand ovation from one end of the line to the other. The next year, April 18, 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 67 

1826, upon his recommendation, the Commissioners of the Canal Fund and the 
Canal Commissioners were constituted a Canal Board for their management.* 

The cause of education received early attention, and New York was the first 
State in the Union to adopt a comprehensive system relative thereto. In 1784, a 
Board of Regents of the University was established.'!' In 1789, lands were set apart 
in the new towns for the support of common schools, and soon thereafter De Witt 
Clinton, as Secretary of the Board of Regents of the University, made the first 
official recommendation for the establishment of a public school system under the 
supervision of the Legislature.£ A common-school fund was instituted during the 
administration of Governor Lewis, under whom, also, material improvements were 
made in the organization of the militia. Governor Tompkins secured the enactment 
of more effective legislation with regard to the common-school fund, and the appoint¬ 
ment of commissioners to organize a common-school system ; and Governor De Witt 
Clinton made an eloquent argument in favor of the public schools in his last annual 
message, in 1828. 

The early history of the Commonwealth shows considerable interest in agricul¬ 
ture. “An act for settling fairs and markets in each respective city and county 
throughout this Province” was passed November 11, 1692. Market days were estab¬ 
lished, but no premiums were offered. This act was repealed in 1788. A “Society 
for the promotion of Arts, Agriculture and Economy in the Province of New York, 
in North America,” was organized in the city of New York in 1764; and a Society 
for the promotion of Agriculture, Arts and Manufactures was organized February 
26, 1791, and incorporated March 12, 1793. Local organizations were instituted in 
1801. The charter expired in 1804, and the association was succeeded by the 
Society for the promotion of the Useful Arts. This was succeeded in 1819 by a 
Board of Agriculture, to which $10,000 annually were appropriated for two years, 
when the appropriations ceased and the Board also. The local organizations, also, 
were generally abandoned. 

The Salt Springs of Onondaga — where the capital of the Iroquois Confederacy 
was located — were used by the Indians for an unknown period, were known to the 
French missionaries as early as 1645—6, and were brought to the attention of General 
Schuyler and by him commended to the Continental Congress January 25, 1777, but 
they were not developed during the Revolution, owing to the want of experts. The 

first settlers made salt after a rude fashion. The State assumed control of the 

springs in 1797, and of the care of the brine in 1826. 

*A history of the Canal system of the State, by Hon. Horatio Seymour, Jr., State Engineer and Surveyor, will be 

found elsewhere.— Editor. 

f A history of the University system, for the promotion of higher education, by Hon. David Murray, Secretary of the 
Regents of the University, appears in the third volume of this work. — Editor. 

JA history of the Common Schools of the State, by Mr. Daniel J. Pratt, is given elsewhere. — Editor. 




68 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


Governor Jay, who succeeded George Clinton, carried forward the internal 
improvement of the State ; secured the mitigation of the criminal code ; the inaugu¬ 
ration of a system for the employment and reformation of criminals, and the passage 
of a law for the erection of Newgate prison. In the canvass preceding his election, 
his well-known anti-slavery views were used to create a prejudice against him among 
slaveholders, but without material effect. The question was constantly pressed by 
his friends in the Legislature, and in April, 1799, an act was passed for the 
gradual abolition of slavery. January 27, 1817, Governor Tompkins sent a special 
message to the Legislature recommending the entire abolition of slavery, to take 
effect July 4, 1827, and such a law was thereupon passed. A kindred moral reform 
was the prohibition of lotteries, contained in the Constitution of 1821. 

New York was deeply interested in currency and banking questions. The 
ruinous depreciation of the Continental currency rendered the People suspicious of 
all paper, and afforded a powerful political lever against the Lederal party, which 

favored the project for a United States Bank, devised by Alexander Hamilton. At 

the same time, banking facilities were necessary; and, therefore, on the 26th of Leb- 
ruary, 1784, certain financial gentlemen associated themselves together for banking 
purposes, and were regularly incorporated as the Bank of New York, March 21, 
1791. Several other bank charters were subsequently passed; and yet, in 1799, only 
sixteen hundred thousand dollars were invested in banking in the State. The banks 

were important political agencies, the Bank of New York being under Lederal con¬ 

trol, and the Manhattan Bank, which was incorporated by a provision in “An act for 
supplying the city of New York with pure and wholesome water,” being a Republican 
institution. Lor some time, there were only three banks north and west of Albany. 
Great scandals grew out of the enactment of special charters, and political affiliations 
were affected by their granting or withholding. In Lebruary, 1811, Vice-President 
George Clinton gave the casting vote in the Senate of the United States, by which 
the re-charter of the United States Bank was denied. In 1812, an effort was made 
to revive the institution, under the name of the Bank of America, and to secure a 
charter therefor from the Legislature of New York. In his address to the Legis¬ 
lature in January, Governor Tompkins dwelt upon the evils of a redundant paper 
currency, and finally prorogued the Legislature, in order to defeat the charter of the 
institution. His message of prorogation was sent to the Legislature March 27; but 
when that body reassembled on the 21st of May it passed the bill. Subsequently, 
on the proposal to charter the Chemical Bank, parties were considerably divided. 
These evils became so great that by the Constitution of 1821 it was provided that a 
vote of two-thirds of the members of each branch of the Legislature should be 
necessary to the incorporation of moneyed institutions. Governor De Witt Clinton, 
in his messages in 1827 and 1828, recommended that the banking system be remod- 




C-C 








THE COMMONWEALTH. 


69 


eled. The recommendation was renewed by Governor Van Buren, and the safety 
fund system was adopted, as a guard against the losses occasioned by failures. At 
this time there were only forty banks in the State, and the charters of thirty of 
them were about to expire. This new system was an improvement upon the old 
system, but it was not until 1838 that the system of special charters was abolished. 

The fundamental principles and policies of the young Commonwealth are, therefore, 
seen to have been progressive in their nature while conservative in tone. Freehold 
suffrage was united with religious liberty and equality. Lands were sold at nominal 
prices, highways constructed and canals built. Education was encouraged, slavery 
was abolished and the moral sentiment of the People respected. Banks were regarded 
with distrust, as a necessary evil, and the question of their wise regulation was being 
agitated, to the end that there should be neither monopoly in banking, nor danger 
from the employment of capital therein. The Federal Union was fostered and the 
State was strengthened and sustained. Thus were the foundations of the Common¬ 
wealth broadly laid, upon secure Federal and Republican foundations. 

The Commonwealth was guided in the beginning of its material and moral 

growth by George Clinton and John Jay. Each was a devoted patriot. Clinton 
possessed rare executive ability, and presented the appearance of a man of action. 
He was of medium stature, of strong mind, dignified and energetic, an organizer of 
material forces, self-reliant and brave. His intense individuality and clear sagacity 
with regard to the resources and destiny of the State of which he was Governor 

made him the natural leader and representative of the Republican party of his day, 
which was the party of the State. Jay was nearly six feet in height, was a thorough 
scholar, was strong in intellect and quick in conscience, grasped firmly the elements 
of moral power in men, relied upon associated efforts for success, and was thus the 
natural leader and representative of the Federal party, which was the party of the 
Federation. Each possessed a well-balanced mind, and could appreciate the elements 
of truth and wisdom in the views held by the other; and, therefore, while primarily 
adhering to the Federal Constitution, Jay readily assented to Clinton’s proposed 
amendments thereto ; and Clinton, after guarding the instrument as he desired with 
reference to what he deemed to be the just rights of the States, gave to the Federal 
Government thus established true and loyal support. During the conspiracy against 
Washington, led in the army by Gates and in the Continental Congress by John 
Adams, the latter voted for a resolution forbidding Washington to transfer troops 
from the Northern department without the consent of Gates and Clinton, but Clinton 
does not appear to have been active in promoting distrust. His record is that 
of a decided and aggressive man, impatient of delay, but devoted to a Union of 

States. He was, therefore, a moderate Anti-Federalist in tone, and was always at 

the front. His nephew, De Witt Clinton, succeeded to his views and policy, blended 


70 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


with the views and policy of jay. The moral stamina and intellectual vigor of Ja.y, 
and the vitality and progressive spirit of the Clintons, were long the controlling and 
energizing power of the Commonwealth, and their combined influence was to it 
like an inspiring genius. The People revolted against extremes, were equally for 
the Federation and the State, and followed the leader who was most progressive, 
irrespective of party. 


CHAPTER XIV. 

The Growth and Mutations of Parties. — Federal and Anti-Federal Organiza¬ 
tions.— George Clinton Succeeded by John Jay.—The Governor and the 
Council of Appointment. — The Republican Party Organized. — De Witt 
Clinton Becomes its Leader. — George Clinton again Elected Governor.— 
The Clintons Lose Control, but Regain it. 

The State of New York did not vote for President at the first election under 
the Federal Constitution, owing to the failure of the Legislature to agree in the 
choice of electors. At the election in 1789, a Governor was to be elected, and a 
Legislature upon which would devolve the choice of United States Senators. Par¬ 
ties were then only forming, and names were hardly an expression even of past 
differences. The principle then prevailed, of giving each school of statesmen and 
each class in a particular school a representation in the Government; and this must 
be borne in mind in considering the nominations then made. Most Federalists 
supported Robert Yates for Governor, notwithstanding he was an extreme Anti- 
Federalist. The two parties were in fact the party which supported the Federal 
Government and the party which sustained the State Government, each party being 
true to all common obligations to both Governments. Jealousy of the new-formed 
Federal Government was naturally strong, and it was, therefore, deemed wise to 
nominate an Anti-Federalist for Governor, in whose hands the rights of the State 
would be deemed secure. With reference to past opinions and tendencies toward 
the future, Yates was an Anti-Federalist and a Republican, and his supporters, 
therefore, constituted a Federal-Republican coalition. Yates was sustained by Aaron 
Burr, a brilliant, fascinating and popular young Anti-Federalist, in the city of New 
York. The Federal-Republican coalition carried the counties of New York, West¬ 
chester, Dutchess, Columbia, Albany and Montgomery, obtaining control of the 
Legislature; but Ulster voted almost unanimously for Clinton, and this, with the 







THE COMMONWEALTH. 


7 i 


vote he received in Orange, Richmond, Kings, Queens and Suffolk, secured his 
election by a majority of four hundred and twenty-nine. The Legislature appointed 
Philip Schuyler and Rufus King Senators, by joint resolution; John Jay became 
Chief Justice of the United States, and Alexander Hamilton Secretary of the 
Treasury. 

Governor Clinton appointed Aaron Burr Attorney-General, September 29, 1789; 
and Burr became a candidate for United States Senator to succeed Schuyler in 
1791. The Senate of the State contained a majority of Federalists; but Burr 
obtained several Federal votes and was elected. Clinton thereupon appointed 
Morgan Lewis, who was a Federalist, to succeed Burr as Attorney-General. Lewis 
was a relative of the Livingstons, who were a powerful family in politics. 

The foreign policy of Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State and the financial 
policy of Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury soon became leading 
topics of discussion ; and the issue between them entered largely into the contest 
for Governor in 1792. The calm conservatism of Washington with respect to the 
French Revolution, and his approval of the Bank and funding policies, were assailed 
by the Anti-Federalists, who appealed to Republican enthusiasm, to popular distrust 
of Executive power, and to popular prejudice against consolidated banking capital. 
Aaron Burr, devoid of principle, was simply a scheming politician, plotting against 
Jefferson and Hamilton alike. He did not, however, make any impression at this 
time upon the politics of the State. The Legislature appointed Electors who voted 
for Washington and Clinton — the vote for the latter being in effect a vote for him 
for Vice-President, as against John Adams, who was elected. 

John Jay was nominated for Governor by the supporters of the Federal Admin¬ 
istration, and received a majority of all the votes cast. Clinton, however, obtained 
a majority of one hundred and eight in the older counties, excluding the newly- 
organized county of Clinton, constituting the northern section of the State, and the 
counties of Otsego and Tioga, or the southern central region. Of these, the counties 
of Clinton and Tioga, the most remote and last settled, about offset each other, 
while Otsego, which was the first section on the frontier to be settled, gave Jay a 
majority of four hundred. The canvassers, a joint committee of the two Houses, 
thereupon threw out the votes of Otsego, Tioga and Clinton, upon technical irregu¬ 
larities with regard to the transmission of the votes, and gave the certificate to 
Clinton, an act which excited great indignation. The verdict of the State, in the 
popular vote as well as in the Legislature, was favorable to the Federal adminis¬ 
tration. Toward the close of Governor Clinton’s administration, the Federal Council 
of Appointment claimed co-ordinate power with the Governor to nominate officers. 
The claim was disputed by the Executive, but he did not resist its being put into 
practice. The action of Clinton, in not voting against the Federal Constitution in 


7 2 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


the Convention of 1788, and his general course, rendered him very acceptable to the 
moderate Federalists, who disliked the plotting Aaron Burr very much ; and their 
friendship for Clinton doubtless explains the fact that he contented himself with a 
protest against this infringement upon his constitutional power. 

The Federalists carried the State in 1793, and about the same time (April 22) 
President Washington issued his neutrality proclamation. This was followed by 
intense political agitation, and in 1794 the Federalists again succeeded in the elec¬ 
tion. The French effervescence had subsided when the election occurred in 1795 1 
Genet had been recalled at the demand of Washington, the whisky insurrection put 
down, and Jefferson and Hamilton had retired from the Cabinet. Aaron Burr was 
now supreme in the Anti-Federal party in the State, and Robert Yates was pre¬ 
sented as the candidate to succeed Governor Clinton, but was defeated by John Jay, 
by a decisive majority. In 1796, the contest for President was between John Adams 
and Thomas Jefferson, and the vote was so close that the Electors of New \ork 
decided the result. They were appointed in November of that year, and voted for 
John Adams and Aaron Burr. Jefferson, receiving the next highest number of 
votes, became Vice-President. The next year, the Federalists carried the State. 

The movement which was to result in the organization of the Republican party 
now began to take definite form. Robert R. Livingston, the Chancellor of the 
State, who had been a Federalist but was opposed to the administration of Adams, 
and who was a relative of Governor Jay, was nominated against him, but the Gover¬ 
nor was re-elected by a large majority. At the same election, De Witt Clinton was 
chosen a member of the State Senate. The Republican movement in this State 
was being directed toward the overthrow of Aaron Burr, and it had the sympathy of 
an influential element in the Federal party. The Anti-Federal candidates in 1800 
were Jefferson and Burr, but the friends of George Clinton claimed that he was 

defrauded out of the nomination. The vote of New York was cast for Jefferson 

and Burr, however; there was a tie in the Electoral College, and the House of 
Representatives elected Jefferson, the Federalists supporting Burr in preference to 
him. Burr became Vice-President, under the Constitution. 

De Witt Clinton and Ambrose Spencer were two of the members of the 
Council of Appointment chosen November 7, 1800, the day following the appoint¬ 
ment of Presidential Electors, and they at once addressed themselves to the work of 
organizing the Republican party. Their first movement was to revive the Federal 
claim to co-ordinate power with the Governor in the matter of nominations. Governor 
Jay denied the constitutionality of the proposed exercise of power, and the question 

was submitted to the Legislature, but the two Houses could not agree. The 

Governor refused to convene the Council again, and a State Convention was agreed 
upon to settle the controversy. This Convention met in 1801, and decided in favor 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


73 


of the Council, with but fourteen negative votes. Aaron Burr was President of the 
Convention. The decision increased the power of the Legislature over the Executive 
department, and had important political consequences. 

The moderate Federalists and moderate Republicans were so nearly alike that 
they were indistinguishable except by name, and they were alike gratified with the 
selection of James Madison for Secretary of State. The Republicans of the State, 
in 1801, brought George Clinton from his retirement, and he was elected Governor 
over Stephen Van Rensselaer, by the largest majority given for any candidate for 
the office up to that time. De Witt Clinton’s term as Senator expired in 1802, and 
in 1803 was appointed Mayor of the city of New York. The following year the 
Congressional Caucus nominated Thomas Jefferson for President and George Clinton 
for Vice-President, thus displacing Burr. The Legislative Caucus, in 1804, nominated 
John Lansing, Jr., for Governor, but he declined, whereupon Morgan Lewis was 
placed in nomination, the circular recommending him being signed by one hundred 
and four of the one hundred and thirty-two members of the Legislature. Aaron 
Burr entered the field against him, and was buried under the heaviest majority given 
up to that time. Burr’s candidacy was offensive to many Federalists, and he was 
strongly opposed by Hamilton at a private consultation of Federal leaders ; and this 
was followed by the fatal duel which laid the one in his grave, and proved the 
political ruin of the other. Lewis was a Federalist, with Republican tendencies upon 
the new issues which were arising; while Burr was an Anti-Clintonian Republican. 


CHAPTER XV. 


The Clintons Supreme. — Rupture between Tompkins and Clinton. — De Witt 
Clinton Becomes a Federal-Republican Candidate for President. — The 
Federal Supporters of Madison.—Martin Van Buren Sustains Clinton.— 
Return of the Latter to the Republican Party. — Federal Factionists 
Oppose the War. — Madison and Tompkins Sustained by Federal and 
Republican Leaders. — De Witt Clinton Retired to Private Life. — He 
Favors the Canal Project. — Reorganizes the Federal-Republican Party.— 
Elected Governor. — Resists Republican Constitutional Reforms. — Place 
of Tompkins in History. 


The Clintons now aimed at supreme power, by driving from the Republican 
party all who were of Federal antecedents. To this end it was proposed to make 
George Clinton the successor of Jefferson, and to displace the friends of Governor 

10 




74 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


Lewis from office in the State. De W itt Clinton thereupon returned to the Senate 
in 1806, was again elected a member of the Council of Appointment, and forthwith 
secured the removal of the Federal-Republican adherents of Lewis, or those sus¬ 
pected of preferring Madison for President. This brought the Federalists to the 
support of the Governor, who secured a majority in the Assembly next year with 
the Republican supporters of the Governor — and chose a Council of Appointment 
which displaced the Clintonian Republicans, including De Witt Clinton himself, who 
was removed from the office of Mayor, and Marinus Willett was appointed in his 
place. The Governor’s term expired that year (1807), and the Republican party 
split upon the question of his renomination. Sixty-five Republican members of the 
Legislature recommended the support of Daniel D. Tompkins, who thus became 
the regular Republican nominee; and forty-five sustained Lewis, who had been 
nominated at a meeting of his friends in the city of New York on the first of 
January. Tompkins was elected by a large majority. 

Madison was nominated for President by the Congressional Caucus in 1808, on 
account of the critical condition of foreign affairs at that juncture, it being deemed 
wiser to elect him President than to take the risk of any essential change in the 

policy of the Government. His course was less aggressive than was desired by 

Clinton, but it commanded the support of the conservative sentiment of the country. 
De Witt Clinton was restored to the office of Mayor in February of that year, but 
that did not satisfy him for the action of the Caucus in giving his uncle only the 
second place upon the ticket. There was a disposition to press Governor Clinton 
for the first place, notwithstanding the action of the Caucus, but the Governor and 
his friends prevented it. 

The Federalists secured control of the Assembly in 1809; and, in ' 1810, took 
issue with so much of the Governor’s address as sustained Madison’s foreign policy. 
They also secured the control of the Council of Appointment, and removed the 
supporters of the Federal and State administrations, including De Witt Clinton, who 
was displaced from the office of Mayor once more. The business interests of the 

country were now active, and domestic manufactures were springing up ; and, there¬ 
fore, the Governor, in addition to his recommendations upon State affairs, favored a 
policy of protection to home industry. 

The test of Republicanism now became, support of the Federal administration ; 
and Morgan Lewis, who was an earnest Madisonian Republican, was nominated and 
elected as such to the Senate. He also actively supported the administration of 
Governor Tompkins; was a member of the Council of Appointment the last year of 
his term as Senator, and was a General in the War of 1812. At the election in 
1810, also, Tompkins was re-elected Governor by an increased majority, his opponent 
being Jonas Platt, Federalist. A Republican Assembly was likewise elected, which 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


75 


chose a Republican Council of Appointment in January, 1811, and reinstated De Witt 
Clinton to the office of Mayor in Pebruary. To this Legislature Governor Tompkins 
repeated his protective views, and his warm approval of Madison’s policy. 

De Witt Clinton was persistent in his opposition to Madison’s policy. He 
criticised it on the ground that it was not vigorous enough toward Great Britain, and 
was needlessly harassing to American commerce, in which the city of New York was 
largely interested. For these reasons he was popular with the Republican party 
throughout the State, with the Irish and all earnest opponents of Great Britain, and 
with the commercial classes. A vacancy existing in the office of Lieutenant-Governor, 
through the death of John Broome, Mr. Clinton was nominated therefor, and was 
elected in April, 1811. The Martling men, or Tammany Hall, in the city of New 
York, who were Madisonian Republicans, did all they could to prevent his nomination 
and election, and their opposition brought to his support the faction of Federalists 
which was opposed to Madison. 

The venerable George Clinton died April 20, 1812, and De Witt Clinton 

became heir to his ambitions. Early in the preceding winter, a private meeting of 
the Republican opponents of the Administration was held in the city of New York, 
to consider the propriety of bringing him out for the Presidency. To this movement 
the old Republican leaders were opposed. Madison was unanimously renominated 
by the Republican members of Congress on the 18th of May, and on the 29th of 

the same month the Republican members of the State Legislature placed De Witt 

Clinton in nomination. Congress declared war in June, and the President issued a 
stirring war proclamation, which completely cut the ground from under Clinton’s feet, 
depriving him of the support of radical Republicans, and compelling him either to 
withdraw or to rely upon the Federalists. He chose the latter course. A Federal 
Convention was held in the city of New York in September, at which he was placed 
in nomination, against the bitter opposition of Rufus King and other Federal 

supporters of the Administration. Each party was divided into two factions. In 
the middle district, Martin Van Buren was elected to the Senate as a Clintonian 
Republican, over Edward P. Livingston, a Madisonian Republican. The Legislature 
was divided into three parties, the Clintonians, the Madisonians, and the Federalists; 
but there were only about thirty Madisonian Republicans elected. A Clinton 
electoral ticket was chosen, headed by Joseph C. Yates; and Rufus King, Federalist, 
was returned to the United States Senate in the February following, where he 
continued to support the war policy of the Administration, 

The Republican Caucus in the spring of 1813 renominated Governor Tompkins, 
and substituted John Taylor for De Witt Clinton as the candidate for Lieutenant- 
Governor. Tompkins and Taylor were elected in spite of Clintonian defection; but 
the Federalists carried the Assembly, the Republicans retaining control of the Senate. 


;6 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


The Federalists in the Assembly now committed the fatal blunder of opposing the 
measures recommended by the Governor in support of Madison and the var, but 
Rufus King, the Senator, General Stephen Van Rensselaer, the recent Federal candi¬ 
date for Governor, Martin Van Buren, who had been a Clintonian leader, and other 
opponents of the State Administration, sustained the Governor at public meetings, 
in the field of war and in the legislative chamber. The unpatriotic course of the 
Federalists lost them the Assembly in 1814, and then the recommendations of the 
Governor were carried into execution. The Assembly, of course, chose a Republican 
Council of Appointment, and Clinton was removed from the office of Mayor in 1815. 
In 1816, the opposing candidates for Governor were Tompkins and King, the opposing 
candidates for President were Monroe and King, and Tompkins was a candidate for 
Vice-President on the ticket with Monroe. The State of New York was carried by 
the Republicans, on Governor and Legislature. About the last act of Governor 
Tompkins, before resigning to enter upon his duties as Vice-President, was to secure 
the abolition of slavery. 

The removal of De Witt Clinton from the office of Mayor of the city of New 
York left him prostrate in political and personal fortune. He at once devoted him¬ 
self with such energy to the canal project as to become its leading champion. He 
was elected Governor in 1817, practically without opposition, and made the construc¬ 
tion of the canal his chief business. The Bank of the United States had been 
re-chartered, business was reviving, the country was cheerful, and the new settlers 
in the western part of the State were no more happy to regard the canal as a fixed 
fact, than the commercial men of the east were to regard this new avenue of trade 
as a certainty. The Martling men, or Tammany Hall, however, did not cease oppo¬ 
sition to Clinton, derided the canal as a visionary scheme, and pushed their political 
opposition to the extreme. Governor Clinton was compelled to rely for support, 
therefore, upon the Federalists,—both the War and Anti-War factions, — the Irish, 
who were his friends, the business community and the new settlers. When John 
Jay was Governor he sought by proclamation to introduce the Thanksgiving custom 
prevailing in New England. So great had the immigration from these States since 
been, that Governor Clinton renewed it with success in 1817, very much to the 
satisfaction of the immigrants. He had succeeded so well in building up a Federal- 
Republican party that his supporters secured the Council of Appointment in 1819, 
and at once made a clean sweep of their opponents from office. Among those thus 
removed was Martin Van Buren, who was succeeded in the office of Attorney-General 
by Thomas J. Oakley. Van Buren had continued steadfast in his support of Tomp¬ 
kins, and hence had become an opponent of Clinton. 

The State of New York, now become the first in the Union, was feeling the 
pulsations of a new life, to which Clinton and Tompkins were strangers; but with 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


77 


the impulses of which, in the end, the former exhibited the strongest sympathies. 
The Legislature of 1820 was chosen under this popular impulse, and was so strongly 
Radical-Republican that Clinton had very few friends therein. Martin Van Buren 
stood in this Legislature between the new and the old, not willing to lose hold of 
the past altogether, yet with his face toward the future. He had first opposed and 
then favored the canal project. He had unsuccessfully labored to secure free banking 
and the abolition of imprisonment for debt. He sustained the abolition of slavery 
in the State, and opposed the admission of States from territory outside of the 
bounds of the original thirteen, unless slavery was prohibited therein by constitu¬ 
tional provision. He was a moderate leader of the new era. The political bond of 
the hour was opposition to Clinton. Rufus King, as representing the old Madisonian 
element, was returned to the United States Senate; Daniel D. Tompkins was again 
nominated for Governor, and an act was passed providing for a State Convention 
with unlimited powers, which was vetoed by a majority of the Council of Revision, 
consisting of Governor Clinton, Chancellor Kent and Judge Spencer — Judges Yates 
and Woodworth favoring it. Clinton was renominated at a meeting of his friends 
in the city of New York, and was elected by a small majority; but a Radical- 
Republican Legislature was chosen in 1820, which sent Martin Van Buren to the 
Senate in 1821, and passed a bill submitting the question of holding a Convention 
to the People. This was approved by the Council, the Convention was directed to 
be held by an overwhelming majority of the People, at the April election, and 
delegates were chosen in June. 

The Commonwealth passed through four successive stages of construction, during 
this period from infancy to young manhood. The first was the Whig epoch of the 
Revolution, when patriots rivaled each other in sacrifices for liberty. The second 
was the Lederal epoch of the Constitution, when the foundations of an enduring 
Union were wisely imbedded in the organic law of the land. The third was t£ie 
Republican era of growth, when the principles of Lederal and State Constitutions 
were developed into a system, and the lands of the State were settled by a people 
sympathizing with the spirit of progress which moved the old leaders. The fourth 
was the Lederal-Republican epoch, when this moral and material power was consoli¬ 
dated and impelled along the lines of the growing greatness of the State. The 
representatives of these epochs were Philip Schuyler, John Jay, George Clinton and 
De Witt Clinton. The position of Tompkins in the history of the State is that of 
the upholder of the national honor and the friend of progress in the Commonwealth, 
sustaining each with the Executive arm, but not leading in any special path of 
progress. While he was not a man of genius, yet his rather tall and somewhat 
portly form stands out in the history of the day as the sure support of the Lederal 
Government against external foe and internal faction, and his steady hand is seen 


78 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


encouraging and guiding the State in moral and material progress. Dignified and 
prepossessing, he deserved the popularity he enjoyed, and fitly repiesents the con¬ 
summation and sum of all the achievements of the then past; for he held without 
alloy, in firm and even balance, the principles which the matured experience of the 
Republic and the Commonwealth demonstrated to be wisest, most conducive to the 
prosperity of the People and the preservation of their liberties. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


A New Era of Progress.—Van Buren favors Conservative Reforms. — A Con¬ 
servative Republican State Administration Organized. — De Witt Clinton 
Becomes the Leader of the Advanced Republicans. — The Conservatives 
Oppose the Choice of Presidential Electors by the People. — Clinton is 
Removed from the Office of Canal Commissioner. — Elected Governor as a 
Progressive Republican. — Powers and Privileges of the People Extended. — 
Divisions in the Republican Party. — Clinton and Van Buren as Rival 
Leaders.— Effect of National Politics upon Parties in this State. — Death 
of Clinton.— Greatness of his Character. 


James Monroe and Daniel D. Tompkins were re-elected President and Vice- 
President in 1820, with substantial unanimity, a single vote being cast for John 
Quincy Adams for President, and fourteen scattering votes for Vice-President, The 
Government remained in its structure and its spirit as James Madison and George 
Clinton had left it; the Republic and the Republican party the Government and 
the People were one, so far as matured principles and policies were concerned. 
There were rival aspirants for the Presidential succession, and they represented 
various conditions and tendencies of the public mind. John Quincy Adams, the 
Secretary of State, who had resigned a seat in the United States Senate in 1808, 
because of disagreement with the Massachusetts Legislature on the Embargo act, 
passed in December, 1807, represented the Conservative sentiment of contentment 
with the existing order of things; John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, represented 
the ultra principle of State Rights and hostility to Federal authority; William H. 
Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury, was strongly opposed to nullification theories, 
and had moderate Democratic tendencies; Andrew Jackson, General and Senator, 
with like opposition to nullification, was marked by a radical Democratic spirit; and 
Henry Clay, Speaker of the House of Representatives, with attachment to the 





THE COMMONWEALTH. 


79 


established Republican system, represented the progressive element of the Con¬ 
servative wing. 

There were three divisions in the Constitutional Convention of 1821, — the 
Conservatives, who wished to save all they could of the old framework ; the Radicals, 
who sought to sweep it all away; and the Moderates, who aimed to guide the new 
movement so as to satisfy the popular demand for constitutional reform, break down 
De Witt Clinton, and obtain possession of the new machinery of Government. The 
Federalists were unable to make any impression upon the new organic law, and the 
Radicals were held in check by the conservatism of Martin Van Buren, but they suc¬ 
ceeded so far that even Tompkins withheld his signature from the new Constitution. 

The most advanced Republicans desired to abolish the freehold qualification for 
suffrage and to provide for the election of Justices of the Peace by the People. 
The influence of Martin Van Buren, however, sufficed to defeat both these 
propositions; but the suffrage was extended, and it was provided that Justices of 
the Peace should be appointed by Judges of the Court of Common Pleas and the 
Boards of Supervisors. On the other hand, Mr. Van Buren desired to separate the 
Judicial from the Legislative departments of Government, and he was opposed to the 
removal of the Judges of the Supreme Court; but the Court of Errors was retained 
as originally constituted, and provision was made for a new designation of Supreme 
Court Judges. The Council of Revision was abolished and the veto power vested 
in the Governor, this improvement also receiving the support of Mr. Van Buren. A 
radical change was made in the Executive department. Sheriffs and County Clerks 
were made elective by the People, against the opposition of Mr. Van Buren; and 
it was provided that the leading department officers should be chosen by the 
Legislature, while all other officers should be appointed by the Governor and Senate. 
The Council of Appointment was, of course, abolished. 

Governor Clinton was naturally a Republican, as he had renewedly shown by 
recommending the abolishment of the Royal custom of opening the Legislature with 
an oral speech thereto by the Governor, and of written addresses in response 
by each House ; and he had acted illogically in opposing the Convention. His 
opposition to it having rendered him unpopular with the Republican wing of his 

supporters, he accordingly declined to be a candidate for re-election. Among the 

members of the Convention who supported the new Constitution were Joseph C. 
Yates and Samuel Young. The latter was a member of the Senate in 1820 and 

1821, was a Canal Commissioner, and a radical opponent of Clinton, and was 

supported for Governor in the Legislative Caucus by the Radicals. Yates was a 
Judge of the Supreme Court and a sincere friend of the canals; he was President 
of the Clinton Electoral College in 1812, but declined to follow Clinton further, 
and had the confidence of conservative and moderate Republicans ; and he was 


8 o 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


nominated for Governor in the Republican Caucus by a large majority. Erastus 
Root, who was also a Conservative and a friend of the Canal system, was nominated 
for Lieutenant-Governor. Yates and Root were chosen at the April election in 
1822, with substantially no opposition. 

In his opening message to the Legislature, besides recommending the changes 
necessary to adapt the laws to the new Constitution, Governor Yates favored the 
protection of home industry and economy in the public works. He also nominated 
Ambrose Spencer and Jonas Platt for reappointment as Judges of the Supreme 
Court, but they were promptly rejected by the Senate because they had opposed 
the new Constitution in the Convention, and had become unpopular by reason of 
their ultra-conservatism. Other names were accordingly sent in. 

De Witt Clinton now placed himself once more at the head of the progressive 
forces of the Commonwealth. As early as 1802, he had proposed that Presidential 
Electors should be chosen by the People, upon the district system; and in his 
speech to the Legislature in November, 1820, he recommended their election on a 
general ticket. The subject was agitated throughout the State in the fall of 1823 ; 
and, in his message to the Legislature in January, 1824, Governor Yates revealed 
the opposition of the Crawford managers to a change in the law by suggesting that 
it was of doubtful propriety, and that the true course to pursue was by an amend¬ 
ment to the Federal Constitution — in other words, it was proposed to strangle it to 
death by delay. The Assembly adopted another evasive method of treatment, by 
passing a bill providing for the choice of Electors on a general ticket, a majority 
of all the votes cast being necessary to an election — a plan which, with four 
candidates, would still have left the matter in the hands of the Legislature. The 
Senate, by the vote of the Crawford Senators, postponed the consideration of the 
subject until November, at which time the Legislature was required to appoint 
the Electors ; the defense being that the project was a scheme against Crawford. 
The Senators thus voting were friends of Van Buren, and they were vehemently 
denounced throughout the State. 

The truth is, the People desired to settle the controversy in the Republican 
party in their own way. The Congressional Caucus had been unable to agree, and 
the solution of the matter was a question as between the People and the managers 
of parties. The Republicans in the Legislature, who finally chose a majority of 
Adams Electors, at their Cacus in April nominated Young for Governor, and the 
same month they removed Clinton from the office of Canal Commissioner. This 
attempt to advance Young, who was also a Commissioner, and to degrade Clinton 
just as the canals were approaching completion, aroused general indignation through¬ 
out the State, moving the sympathies of the People, with whom Clinton was strong, 
and placing him at the head of the People’s movement. Among those who then 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


81 


followed Clinton was William H. Seward, and the feeling aroused by Clinton’s 
removal was not satisfied until Young was removed in 1840, when Seward, then 
Governor of the State, sat in Clinton’s chair. Seward had been a sympathizer with 
the Van Buren wing of the party, but he was so no longer, after Clinton’s removal. 

The members of the Legislature who favored the choice of Electors by the 
People determined to call a State Convention to nominate a People’s candidate for 
Governor, to be held at Utica in September; and the Governor, in June, issued a 
proclamation convening the Legislature for the consideration of the subject, but 
when it met in August it declined to do so. The People’s Convention nominated 
Clinton for Governor over James Tallmadge, and then nominated the latter for 

Lieutenant-Governor. Young was a friend of Clay, and he sought to stem the tide 
by expressing himself in favor of the choice of Electors by the People, which 

displeased the Van Buren managers, without securing him any friends, for the 
People were determined that the original promoter of the Canal system should be in 
charge of the canals at their completion, and Clinton was elected by a large 

majority. The Legislature appointed Electors in November, twenty-four of whom 
voted for Adams, four for Crawford, four for Clay, and one for Jackson. 

In his messages, Governor Clinton congratulated the Legislature upon the con¬ 
stitutional reforms which had been successfully inaugurated, and recommended that 
the elective franchise be extended, and Presidential Electors and Justices of the 

Peace be chosen by the People, thus completely eclipsing his rival, Van Buren. 
The three questions were submitted to the People during his administration, who 
decided by a small majority to choose Electors by districts, and adopted the other 
two recommendations with scarcely any opposition. Clinton, who had termed his 

opponents “ Buck-tails,” in allusion to an order of the Tammany Society which 

wore the tail of a deer as an insignia, was now the acknowledged leader of the 
progressive forces of the State. He was opposed to the National Republican 

administration of Adams, but still encountered the hostility of the Van Buren 

Republicans. He preferred Andrew Jackson for President. He was opposed in his 
canvass for re-election in 1826 by William B. Rochester, an Adams or National 

Republican. The candidate for Lieutenant-Governor on the Clinton ticket was 
Henry Huntington, a supporter of the National Republican Administration, while 

the candidate for the same office on the National Republican ticket was Nathaniel 
Pitcher, a Jackson opponent of the Administration. The Crawford Republicans, led 
by Van Buren, Wright and Marcy, supported Rochester and Pitcher. The two 
parties divided very evenly except upon the Southern tier, where a local issue 

decided the election in favor of Clinton and Pitcher. In 1825, Governor Clinton 
recommended the building of a State road from Lake Erie through the Southern 
tier to the Hudson river, and he repeated the recommendation in 1826, and was 


82 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


sustained therein by Pitcher, while Rochester and Huntington were opposed thereto. 
The Southern tier consequently voted for Clinton and Pitcher, and they were 
elected, but by a reduced majority; the “ Buck-tails secured the Legislature, and 
Van Buren was re-elected United States Senator February 6, 1827. 

In his messages in 1827 and 1828, Governor Clinton recommended that the 
State debt be speedily extinguished, lateral canals constructed, domestic manufactures 
encouraged, the banking system remodeled, and the common schools built up, his 
last message being particularly forcible in the latter respect. He died suddenly 
February 11, 1828, of heart disease. The history of his achievements proves his 
greatness. He was a hard student, a giant in intellect, a scholar, a statesman and 
an exemplary citizen. His moral courage and persistence were heroic, and his 
nobility of soul was stamped upon his finely moulded features. His countenance 
combined grace with dignity, his forehead was large, and his eyes keen and pene¬ 
trating. He broadened and deepened and strengthened the foundations of the 
Commonwealth; politicians may deem him an enigma, but the citizen who regards 
the effect of political acts upon the State as primary, and upon the politicians as 
secondary, will award to De Witt Clinton the credit of being peer among the greatest 
founders of States. 


CHAPTER XVII. 


Finances of the State.—Comptroller Marcy’s Management thereof.—The 
Canals and their Construction. — Anti-Masonic Excitement. — Divisions in 
the Republican Party.—Silas Wright in the United States Senate.—The 
Electoral System. — Radical Administration of Governor Throop. — His 
Financial and Canal Policies.—Organizing against the Democratic Party.— 
Marcy in the United States Senate. 


Three questions were becoming prominent in the State when De Witt Clinton 
died. The first related to the finances of the State. They had not suffered under 
the old Constitution, and were in a prosperous condition when Marcy was elected 
Comptroller by the Van Buren Republicans in 1823, against the opposition of 
Samuel Young and his Radical friends. The general fund, which originated from 
the sale of lands under Governor George Clinton, had been guarded from encroach¬ 
ment, as part of the public policy of the State. It was drawn upon during the war 
of 1812, however, and in 1814 a tax of two mills was imposed to replenish it. This 
tax was continued after the construction of the canals was commenced, but was 




THE COMMONWEALTH 


83 


reduced to one mill in 1818, and to half a mill in 1824, and was removed altogether 
in 1827, against the protest of Comptroller Marcy. The Comptroller had introduced 
a new toll system, and was the first officer to require the banks to pay interest. 
This was the condition of the finances when the pioneer lateral canal, the Chenango, 
was being pressed upon the attention of the Legislature, constituting the second 
prominent question of interest. 

The proposed lateral canal system — the Genesee Valley at the west, the Black 
River at the north, and the Chenango through the southern-central counties — 
encountered the opposition of a majority of the Canal Board, led by Young, on the 
ground that the public debt ought to be extinguished, and a surplus revenue accu¬ 
mulated sufficient to discharge all liabilities, before entering upon any new work. 
Mr. Wright, as Chairman of the Senate Canal Committee, in 1827, took the position 

that the State ought not to increase its debt, for purposes of internal improvement, 

until the money already borrowed had been paid, and that no new work ought to 
be commenced unless it was quite certain that the net revenue arising from it would 
“ reimburse the treasury for the expense of making it.” Comptroller Marcy did not 
occupy the extreme position. He opposed the construction of the lateral canals 
upon the ground that it was not proposed to provide the means for the ultimate 
payment of the debt, at the time the work was ordered to be commenced. 

The third element in the politics of the State was the Anti-Masonic excitement, 

caused by the abduction of Morgan in 1826, for alleged exposures of the secrets of 

the order. This movement took the form of a demand for legislative action against 
the society, and it extended into other States. The principal political movers in it 
at the west were Clinton Republicans. 

The changes in the National situation had great effect in this State. Henry 

Clay, Secretary of State, supported the re-election of Adams, but the more radical of 

his followers refused to go with him, and joined the supporters of Jackson. In the 
organization of the House of Representatives in December, 1827, the friends of 
Jackson, Crawford and Calhoun united in the choice of Speaker; and Silas Wright, 
who had been transferred to Congress, became their representative upon the 
Committee having the tariff in charge. This Committee reported a High Tariff bill, 
drafted by Mr. Wright, in order to detach the supporters of a protective tariff from 
Adams, and the bill was passed with some amendments. A Jackson Convention was 
then called, to meet in Herkimer in September, and at that Convention Martin Van 
Buren was nominated for Governor, and Enos T. Throop for Lieutenant-Governor. 
By the death of Clinton, his bright, lithe and able opponent had become master of 
the situation in the State, there being no one then capable of combining a party 
against him; and the withdrawal of Crawford on account of ill-health, and the 

transfer of his strength to Jackson, reduced the choice to two candidates, Adams 


8 4 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


and Jackson, while there were, at least, three distinct parties in the State. Two 
candidates were, accordingly, placed in nomination against Van Buren, the Clinton 
Republicans proper rallying under the Anti-Masonic banner, and supporting Solomon 
Southwick,—who had been editor of the Argus , but had followed Clinton as against 
Tompkins, — and the National Republicans voting for Smith Thomson. The 
aggregate vote was largely increased, but the combined vote against V an Buren 

was within a few hundreds of the majority of Clinton over Rochester. The 
Presidential Electors were chosen under the district system, Jackson receiving twenty 
votes and Adams sixteen. The division of the electoral vote caused the repeal of 
the system the following year, and the substitution of the general ticket system, 
which has since prevailed. Van Buren resigned shortly after his inauguration, in 

order to accept a place in Jackson’s Cabinet, and was succeeded by the tall and 
slender Throop, a Radical Democrat of positive convictions and great decision of 
character, upon whom devolved the task of undertaking to introduce the policy of 
the Radical school into the administration of the State. 

When Lieutenant-Governor Throop took the chair as presiding officer of the 
Senate, he sought to call all Republicans into the ranks of the Radicals by reminding 
them of their differences with the Federalists in 1798 and 1812, and to quiet the 
opposition of the Anti-Masonic Republicans by intimating that, in his opinion, 
unless some great and important objects were secured by Masonry, the institution 
ought to be dissolved, because it could not continue to exist except as a source of 
“useless irritation.” As Governor, he signed the Safety Fund Banking Act; 
recommended a revision of the Criminal Code; approved a bill for the abolition of 

imprisonment for debt, drawn by Millard Fillmore ; and pressed the condition of the 

insane poor upon the attention of the Legislature with such effect that the State 
Lunatic Asylum at Utica was established. 

The financial and canal policy of Governor Throop, however, was the distin¬ 
guishing feature of his administration. Marcy was transferred to the Supreme Court 
Bench, to make room for Wright, who was more radical. The Governor called 
attention in his message to the fact that the general fund had been reduced from 
$2,600,000 to $1,300,000, and recommended a tax to replenish it. Comptroller 
Wright also labored to secure the tax, but could only obtain the relief of general 
loans. The Governor’s financial policy was summed up in this passage from his 
annual message, sent to the Legislature in 1832 : “No public debt should be 
created but with ample provision for its liquidation within a reasonable time.” He 
steadily resisted the Chenango canal project, and alienated support in that section of 
the State. 

The Clintonian and National Republicans made preparations in 1830 for 
reuniting their strength. In March of that year, Thurlow Weed founded the Albany 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 




Evening Journal, to contend with Edwin Croswell, editor of the Argus, for influence 
over the eastern Republicans, and to represent the reorganized party at the State 
capital. Mr. Weed was a Clinton Republican, and had been prominent in leading 
the Anti-Masonic movement in Rochester. He was a skillful politician and an able 
editor, and the establishment of his paper supplied a greatly needed want, in the 
view of those who agreed with the policies it advocated. Francis Granger, an able 
member of Congress, residing in Canandaigua, was supported for Governor that year 
by the National Republicans and Anti-Masons, but the Masonic Republicans of the 
eastern part of the State did not vote, and Throop was re-elected, notwithstanding 
a defection in the Chenango valley. The movement against him, however, gathered 
such force in the course of the next two years, that he declined to be a candidate 
again, and the Democratic attitude was entirely changed. 

In 1831 occurred the resignation of Van Buren from the Cabinet, his rejection 
as Minister to Great Britain by the casting vote of Vice-President Calhoun, followed 

by general indignation among the original Crawford and Jackson men throughout 

% 

the country. His identification with the cause of Federal supremacy within its 
Constitutional sphere, as against the State rights theories of Calhoun, however, 
secured his nomination for the Vice-Presidency by the Democratic National Conven¬ 
tion held at Baltimore in May, 1832. 

Meantime Judge Marcy had been elected United States Senator. The high 
tariff which then existed was regarded as oppressive, and Senator Clay introduced a 
resolution declaring that the duties on non-protected articles ought to be abolished. 
Senator Marcy proposed to amend the resolution by adding, that the duties on pro¬ 
tected articles ought to »be so graduated as not to exclude foreign articles from 
competition, but “ to establish the competition on such terms as shall give a reason¬ 
able encouragement and protection to the manufactures and products of the United 
States.” A new Tariff act was passed during the session, drafted by Senator Clay, 
which was accepted by Senator Marcy as an improvement on the old schedule of 
duties. Senator Marcy also voted against the bill for the improvement of rivers 
and harbors, notwithstanding it contained an appropriation for the improvement of 
the navigation of the Hudson river below Albany. The bill was vetoed by President 
Jackson. Senator Marcy also voted against the re-charter of the United States 
Bank, and sustained President Jackson’s veto of the bill, in July. 


86 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


Marcy Elected Governor.— He Favors the Clintonian Policy of Development. 

— Lateral Canals Constructed.— Loan for the Erie Canal Enlargement. 

— Ocean Steamers. — Railroads in the State. — Banking and Currency. — 
Free Banking System. — Organization of the Whig Party. — The Financial 
Crisis of 1837.-— School-District Libraries First Established.— Clinton and 
Marcy as Builders of the Commonwealth. — Seward Elected Governor.— 
His Tribute to the Greatness of the State. 


Senator Marcy’s record as an economist while Comptroller, and in favor of mod¬ 
erate protection to home industry as made in the Senate, united with the fact that 
he was not a Mason and had taken no part in the opposition to the Chenango 
canal, and his identification with the Union policy of Jackson, caused him to be 
regarded as the most available candidate for Governor in his party, in the election 
in 1832 ; and he was accordingly nominated at a Convention held at Herkimer in 
September, with John Tracy, of Chenango county, for Lieutenant-Governor. The 
Anti-Masons again nominated Luther Bradish, early in the year, and the National 
Republicans indorsed the nomination. The electoral nominees were divided between 
the two elements in the party, with the understanding that if successful they were to 
vote either for Clay or Wirt, the National-Republican and Anti-Masonic candidates, 
as the one or the other might have the most strength. William Wirt was an old 
Jeffersonian Republican, was Attorney-General under Monroe, and was the favorite 
of the Clintonian Republicans in this State, who constituted the main body of the 
Anti-Masonic organization. Marcy was elected Governor by a large majority, on a 
very full vote. 

Governor Marcy approved the Clintonian policy of development, by cautiously 
commending the Chenango canal project to the consideration of the Legislature, 
and a law was passed authorizing its construction. The act was opposed by Seward 
and the western Republicans, because it contained a provision that in case of any 
deficiency in the appropriation it should be made good out of the general fund, 
which they regarded as unjust towards the Erie canal, to which they were especially 
devoted, and might prevent a reduction in the tolls, which they hoped to see 
brought about. After his re-election in 1834, Governor Marcy also recommended 
the enlargement of the Erie canal, and a law was passed for that purpose ; in 1836 
he approved acts for the construction of the Black River and Genesee Valley canals, 
and in 1838 he approved a loan of four millions in behalf of the Erie enlargement. 




& 




















THE COMMONWEALTH. 


87 


The same year the Sirius and Great Western arrived in New York; thus, as a local 
journal remarked at the time, “satisfactorily proving the feasibility of performing 
the voyages of the Atlantic by the aid of steam.” 

The railroad system of the State was now taking form. The first railroad incor¬ 
porated in the country, the Mohawk and Hudson, connecting Albany with Schenec¬ 
tady, received its charter in 1826, the year after the canals were completed. This 
was followed by the Utica and Schenectady, and that by the Syracuse and Utica; 
and in 1834 the Auburn and Syracuse was incorporated. Meantime, in 1832, a 
charter was granted the New York and Erie Railroad Company; the route was 
surveyed in 1834, under the direction of the Legislature, and in 1836 the Legis¬ 
lature loaned three millions of dollars to aid in its construction. The financial 
convulsion of the following year, however, seriously interfered with it. 

It is not within the scope of this sketch of the development of the Common¬ 
wealth to discuss the causes of that convulsion. It had the most far-reaching 
effects in shaping that development, however, and thus its facts must be presented. 
Governor Marcy sustained the removal of the deposits from the United States Bank 
in 1833, and resisted the granting of bank charters in this State, numerous applica¬ 
tions for which flooded the Legislature after this removal. Only eight charters were 
granted in 1833, but seven in 1834, not one in 1835, and but two or three during 
the remainder of his administration. Coin having become scarce, the Legislature in 
1835 prohibited banks from using bills under five dollars; and this was followed by a 
flood of “ shinplasters.” A general banking law was proposed as a remedy for existing 
evils; but Attorney-General Beardsley, in 1837, gave it as his opinion that it would 
be unconstitutional. The demand for additional banking facilities became so strong, 
however, that in 1838 a general free banking act was passed by the Legislature and 
approved by Governor Marcy ; and the system thus adopted, improved from time to 
time, became the basis of the present United States National Banking system. 

Parties re-formed and crystallized during the administration of Governor Marcy. 
The resolute treatment of the South Carolina nullifiers by President Jackson in 1833 
gratified the opponents of the State Rights school, while Clay’s compromise tariff 
took from Calhoun one ground of appeal to the interests, of the South, and the 
opposition of Van Buren, Marcy and their friends to the anti-slavery agitation 
removed the other. This successful composure of the troubles of the party 
contributed greatly to the nomination of Van Buren for President in 1836 and the 
renomination of Marcy for Governor; and to the success of the Democratic party 
in State and Nation. 

Meantime, the work of uniting the two elements of the opposition likewise 
progressed. The nominee for Governor in 1834, against Marcy, was William H. 
Seward, who represented the Clintonian element, sympathized with the Anti-Masonic 


88 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


movement and the anti-slavery agitation, sustained the old banking, tariff, and 
improvement policies, and had favored all progressive measures in the State Senate. 
The four divisions of the Republican party as they existed at the close of Monroe’s 
administration were now confined within two political organizations, the Democratic 
and the Whig; but the lines between the four divisions still remained to divide 
factions or wings of the new parties. Each of these parties claimed to be the 
legitimate successor of the Republican party. In 1836, the Whigs nominated Jesse 
Buel for Governor. He had been an editor of the Albany Argus, but did not 
sustain the controlling wing of the Democratic party. 

It is worthy of note that the State Geological Survey was authorized in 1836, 
and that School District Libraries originated during Governor Marcy’s adminis¬ 
tration, the State thus setting an example which was speedily followed by other 
Commonwealths. 

Van Buren’s election as President was followed by the financial crash of 1837, 
and that by the Independent Treasury plan, and the entire banking and business 
interests became arrayed against Federal and State administrations. Marcy and 
Seward were the opposing candidates for Governor in 1838, and the latter was 
elected. 

In his first message to the Legislature, Governor Seward thus summed up the 
progress of the State to that time: “History furnishes no parallel to the financial 
achievements of this State. It surrendered its share in the national domain, and 
relinquished for the general welfare all the revenues of its foreign commerce, equal, 
generally, to two-thirds of the entire expenditure of the Federal Government. It 
has, nevertheless, sustained the expenses of its own administration, founded and 
endowed a broad system of education, charitable institutions for every class of the 
unfortunate, and a penitentiary establishment which is adopted as a model by 
civilized nations. It has increased four-fold the wealth of its citizens, and relieved 
them from direct taxation; and in addition^ to all this it has carried forward a 
stupendous enterprise of improvement, all the while diminishing its debts, magnifying 
its credit and augmenting its resources.” Governor Marcy rendered important service 
in this constructive work, and is to be enrolled among the builders of the Common¬ 
wealth. He was stout in frame and firmly moulded, strong in texture of mind and 
body, devoid of show and thoroughly practical in all his methods. George Clinton, 
John Jay, De Witt Clinton and William L. Marcy gave definite form to the State, 
and William H. Seward succeeded to the Executive office with high appreciation of 
the services each had rendered, and with a determination to preserve and extend 
their labors. 




THE COMMONWEALTH. 


89 


CHAPTER XIX. 

Growth of the Great West. -— Enlarging Canals and Aiding Railroads. — 
Temporary Reverse to the Enlargement Policy.— Public Improvements 
Stopped. — The Radical School of Financiers. — The Democratic Party 
Returns to Power. — Conflict of Views. — Convention of 1846. — Increase 
of Popular Power. — An Independent Judiciary. — Codification of the 
Laws. — Restrictions upon the Legislature. — The Schools and Prisons. 

The rapidity with which the Great West was increasing in population at the 
time when William H. Seward was elected Governor led to the most sanguine 
expectations with regard to the public works, and was urged in justification of the 
speedy enlargement of the Erie canal. Ohio had already become the third State in 
the Union, and the tide of immigration was ceaseless. In our own State, the 
southern and northern tiers of counties were rapidly settled, and the available lands 
fully occupied. On the other hand, facilities of communication were entirely inade¬ 
quate, and the statesmen of the Commonwealth thought they could not be provided 
too speedily. It was, therefore, the policy of the Whigs to push work upon the 
canals with all possible speed, borrowing money therefor in anticipation of the 
revenues, the bonds issued to be used as a basis for the free banking system, the 
establishing of which had become an acknowledged necessity. The plan was perfect, 
and was afterward successfully inaugurated. At this time, however, wild extravagance 
prevailed. Many sought investment in ruinous schemes, the bonds of the State sold 
only at a heavy discount, and it became apparent that the revenues of the canals 
would not much more than pay principal and interest of the debt. 

The Radical school of financiers now gained the ascendancy in the affairs of 
the Commonwealth, and the Whigs began to lose power, alike from the depression 
caused by the course of Tyler, and the depreciation of the credit of the State. 
The result was that a Democratic reaction took place, one of the most significant 
incidents of which was the election of Sanford E. Church to the Assembly, in 
November, 1841, from the county of Orleans, in the western part of the State, 
hitherto strongly opposed to the Democratic party. Horatio Seymour was also 
elected to the Assembly the same year, from the county of Oneida. He was the 
son of Henry Seymour, long a Canal Commissioner, a gentleman of the strictest 
integrity, and possessed of executive abilities of high order. 

The State officers were unable, in 1841, to borrow money to pay contractors 
upon the canals; and the Legislature of 1842, with the approval of Governor 


go 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


Seward, passed a law suspending work, providing for the raising of money by 
taxation, to be applied toward the payment of the public debt, which had become 
very large, and making specific pledges of the revenues of the State. Aid was 
also withheld from railroads. The result was that the New York and Erie road, 
which in 1840 was completed as far as Goshen, in Orange county, was abandoned 
temporarily, the company was compelled to make an assignment, and the road was 
not completed until 1851 ; and work was suspended on the Ogdensburg and Lake 
Champlain road, the tools of the workmen along the line being left scattered 
in sad confusion. All public improvements came to a standstill, amid general regret 
and gloom. 

The People looked upon their prostrate public works and their prostrate 
finances, and were prepared to award the laurel of statesmanship to the leader 
who would restore both. In the fall of 1842, the Democrats nominated William C. 
Bouck for Governor. He was a Canal Commissioner, and represented the Conserva¬ 
tive Democrats who were seeking to place canals and finances upon a sound basis. 
He was elected. His views were thus summed up in one of his messages: “A debt, 
for the purposes of internal improvement, should not be extended beyond the ability 
of those improvements to meet the interest and ultimately redeem the principal.” 

Horatio Seymour was re-elected to the Assembly in 1842, was recognized as the 
leader of the Conservative friends of Governor Bouck on the floor, and was again 
elected in 1843. The disorder in the finances of the State had then become so far 
remedied that it was deemed wise to resume work upon the canals. Mr. Seymour, 
therefore, drew a bill appropriating a part of the surplus revenue, after complying 
with the provisions of the law of 1842, to the completion of the unfinished work 
upon the canals. This measure was opposed by the Radicals, but it passed both 
branches of the Legislature and became a law. The conflict between the two wings 
of the Democratic party was carried to the State Convention, which was held at 
Syracuse on the fourth of September following. At this Convention, Silas Wright, 
Jr., was nominated over Governor Bouck, receiving the vote of about three-fourths 
of the members of the Convention, and the nomination was made unanimous, on 
motion of Mr. Seymour. The nomination of Martin Van Buren for President, by 
the Democratic National Convention, was prevented that year by the operation of the 
two-thirds rule, and James K. Polk was presented as the candidate. New York was 
carried by the Democracy, and the differences in the party became more pronounced. 

The majority of the Democrats in the Assembly of 1845 were Conservatives; 
Horatio Seymour was elected Speaker, and a bill was passed appropriating moneys 
for the prosecution of work upon the canals, which the Governor vetoed, on the 
ground that the bill was inconsistent with the policy and pledges of 1842. At this 
session, also, another and a very important question connected with the progress of 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


9 1 


the Commonwealth came up for action. The Radicals were endeavoring to engraft 
the policy and pledges of the law of 1842 upon the Constitution; and amendments 
providing therefor, passed by the preceding Legislature, were pending. The. Whigs 
were opposed to the amendments and in favor of a Convention; the Governor 
favored the amendments and opposed a Convention. The Whigs voted with the 
Conservatives against the amendments and defeated them, thus compelling the 
Radicals to favor a Convention as the only way to secure their purpose. The 
Conservatives were willing to submit the question of holding a Convention to the 
People, provided the Radicals would agree to a separate submission of each article 
of the Constitution to the People. It was agreed that a Convention should be held, 
and then the Whigs and Radicals united in passing an act which did not provide 
for separate submission, and the Governor approved it. The leader of the Whigs at 
this time was John Young, who had been their candidate for Speaker. The People 
approved of the holding of a Convention, and delegates were elected thereto, who 
assembled in June, 1846. 

In the interval between the passing of the Constitution of 1821 and the meeting 
of the Convention of 1846, the demand for the limitation of the power of the 
Governor and the Legislature over the public service, and an enlargement of the 
power of the People, grew stronger each year. In 1833, by a vote of the People, 
the office of Mayor of the city of New York was made elective; in 1839, by the 
same authority, it was directed that all Mayors of cities should be chosen by the 
People, and in 1845 the property qualification for office was abolished in the same 
manner. The Constitution of 1846 took away from the Legislature the power to 
appoint the general administrative officers of the State, and rendered them elective. 
Previous to 1846, the Boards of Supervisors had appointed the County Treasurers, 
following the method of selecting the Colonial and State Treasurer by the Legis¬ 
lative body. By the Constitution of 1846, County Treasurers and all county 
officers were made elective. The elective franchise was extended, and the legislative 
and judicial powers were separated by the institution of an independent Court of 
Appeals. The Court of Chancery was abolished, and the legislative districts were 
made smaller in territorial area in consequence of the increase in population. The 
principles of the science of jurisprudence were better understood, and the codification 
of the laws, and simplification of the practice in the courts, the necessity for which 
had become apparent, followed.* The power of the Legislature over the revenues 
was limited, and the provisions of the law of 1842 were incorporated into the Consti¬ 
tution. The supremacy of the Legislature thus became an idea of the past. 


* This subject is treated more fully in the article upon “The Judiciary,” by Mr. J. Irving Browne, which is given 
at the beginning of the third volume of this work.— Editor. 




9 2 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


The principle upon which the new organic law was based was that of an 
absolute separation of each department of the Government from the others, with 
distinct responsibility of public servants directly to the People. The Legislature was 
no longer supreme, for its powers were restricted in the organic law. There was 
thus a return to the old Dutch principle of restricted authority, with the assertion of 
individual liberty, regulated by law, and protected by the Judiciary. Tendencies in 
this direction were manifested in the Convention of 1821, and the sentiment grew 
stronger during the succeeding quarter of a century. Important judicial and penal 
reforms were urged by Governor Seward, and initiated during his administration, 
including the financial management of the prisons, and the separation of the sexes 
confined therein. These efforts to improve prison discipline, ameliorate the condition 
of prisoners, and encourage them in honest labor, resulted in the organization, in 
1846, of a society to promote these ends, termed the Prison Association, which has 
since devoted its energies exclusively and effectively in that direction. In 1854, upon 
the suggestion of Governor Seymour, the Legislature passed an act giving prisoners 
a share in the proceeds of their industry. The results of the improvements in the 
penal svstem of the State were so great that the prisons of New York became 
superior to any others in the world, and were visited by Europeans who came to 
study the plans of prison discipline which had been devised and put in operation ; 
and their reports, which were published on their return, were not limited to words 
of approval, but were decidedly laudatory, and led to important reforms in the prison 
systems of the old world. 

State encouragement to agriculture was revived in 1841, and an appropriation 
was made in aid of the State Agricultural Society; and the efforts in this direction 
resulted in State and county organizations and fairs, and great improvement in 
products and stocks. 

Governor Seward gave a powerful impetus to the cause of public education. 
The system was reorganized, new energy infused, and school district libraries built 
up. The State Normal School was established at Albany in 1844. A free school 
law was approved by the People in 1849, an d its repeal negatived by them in 1850. 
The system, however, became unpopular because of its inequalities, and the law was 
repealed by the Legislature in 1851. Union free schools were authorized in 1853, 
and in 1854 the Department of Public Instruction was organized, on the recom¬ 
mendation of Governor Seymour. 

The Constitution of 1846, as will be seen by this review, marks an epoch remark¬ 
able for the organization of the moral and material forces of the Commonwealth ; for 
the radical reconstruction of the organic law upon the broadest and most liberal 
principles, so far as respects the powers of the People and the freedom of their 
personal interests, and for the restraints placed upon the power of the Legislature. 













THE COMMONWEALTH. 


93 


CHAPTER XX. 

The Great Corporate and Business Interests of the Commonwealth._Their 

Organization and Growth. — Canal and Lake Commerce. — Organization of 

the Banking System. — Tolls upon Railroads — Their Abolition._The 

Constructive Work of Seward, Wright and Seymour. 

The Constitution of 1846 provided for the organization of business corporations 
under general laws, a principle which had been strongly urged by Governor Seward. 
The telegraph was just then coming into use, the entire telegraph business of the 
country that year being transacted in a dingy basement in New York city, by three 
men. A general law for the incorporation of telegraph companies was passed in 1848. 

Insurance companies were formerly chartered under special acts. General laws 
for their regulation were passed in 1849 an d 1853, and they were required to report 
to the Comptroller. A general act for the incorporation of ocean steamship com¬ 
panies was passed in 1852. 

The condition of business activities, and the relation of the State thereto, at 
the time now under consideration, will be understood by this brief summary. Every 

modern industry and vocation was in the beginning of associated enterprise; and, 

quick as human energy itself, was the celerity with which statesmen grasped the 
solution of the problem. The entire tendency was toward an unfettered business 
and untrammeled trade, free education and free commerce, regulated and protected 
by law, to the end that none should either be bound by it, or be permitted under 
the sanctions of unjust authority to wrong any. 

The canals were the great business interest of the State, and lake commerce 

was intimately connected with them. In 1825 trade upon the lakes was transacted 

in a few schooners of thirty or forty tons each, and the arrivals and departures from 
Buffalo were only sixty-four. The lake entries in 1846 were 15,855 ; the foreign, at all 
the seaports in the United States, were only 16,562. The original capacity of boats 
on the canals was less than forty tons; in 1845 it was only sixty-seven tons. The 
tolls received during the latter part of the season that year were much greater than 
in any former period, inducing Governor Wright, in his message to the Legislature 
in 1846, to say that “results like these will rapidly relieve the canal revenues from 
the consuming demand for interest which has so long nearly absorbed their whole 
net proceeds.” When the enlargement of the canal was directed by the Legislature 
in 1838, it was estimated that the tolls would reach three millions of dollars in 
1849 ; in fact they reached three millions five hundred thousand dollars in 1847. 


94 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


These facts are necessary to understand the divisions in sentiment which existed 
at the time. The Radical policy was thus enunciated by Governor Wright, in his 
message to the Legislature in 184b: “The legislation which equalizes the benefits 
and burdens of government, extends the same encouragement to the enterprise and 
industry of all in every section and employment, and attempts to secure no special 
privileges to any, will diffuse prosperity throughout a community, because, under 
such a system of laws, all will feel that the fruits of their industry are honestly 
secured to themselves.” With regard to State finances, he said: “While the redemp¬ 
tion of pledges contained in former laws, authorizing loans of money, should require 
it, the whole of the revenues, beyond payment of current. and necessary expenses, 
should be appropriated to the payment of the portion of the debt falling due, rather 
than to any new expenditures.” Governor Wright also attached importance to the 
fact that the State census of 1845 showed that the increase in the population since 
1840 was not equal to the rate of increase during previous periods. 

Rival routes were now springing up, to contend with New \ork for the carrying 
trade of the growing West. One class of statesmen saw that it might be taken 
from the Commonwealth ; another, that to press construction too speedily might 
renew financial prostration. The solution of the problem was to be found in a 
secure banking system. The early prejudice against banks was so strong that when, 
in 1817, efforts were made by philanthropic gentlemen in the city of New York to 
organize a savings bank, it encountered opposition in the Legislature, and an 
unfavorable report, because of the dangers of banks ; and it was not until 1819 
that the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism succeeded in securing a charter. 
De Witt Clinton was active in this movement, and was the first Governor to allude 
favorably to savings banks in addressing the Legislature. The fear of the power 
of banks caused a tendency to restrict banking privileges, and this restriction 
increased the feeling against them as monopolies. The act incorporating the Bank of 
North America, passed in 1782, prohibited any other bank within the limits of the 
State ; but it was found impossible to maintain the restriction as the State increased 
in population and business necessities. The great want of the Commonwealth was 
an intelligent supervision and control of the banks of the State. The Safety Lund 
law, passed in 1829, allowed the banks to name two out of the three Bank 
Commissioners provided for by that act; but the general banking act of 1838 vested 
the appointment of all Commissioners in the hands of the Governor and Senate. In 
1843 the office of Bank Commissioner was abolished, and the banks were directed 
to report to the Comptroller. This action was taken under the administration of 
Governor Wright, and when Azariah C. Llagg was Comptroller. He was a Radical 
and a hard-money man. He built the banking system on a hard-pan foundation. 









THE COMMONWEALTH. 


95 


These facts show that the State was ready for a forward movement in 1846. 
John Young was elected Governor in that year, and immediately took up the 
advance. In his first message, he referred with approval to the increase of the 
power of the People secured by the new Constitution, but deprecated the financial 
restrictions, remarked that good faith required the completion of the laterals, and 
said: “The propriety of completing the enlargement of the Erie canal is a matter 
about which there can scarcely be said to be a diversity of opinion. The products 
of the great West, annually augmenting to an extent almost incredible, must seek a 
market through other channels, unless the capacity of the canals shall be increased 
at an early day. The canals, left to themselves, will complete the canals and pay 
the debt at no distant period.” And he thought it was the wisest policy to postpone 
debt-paying until the completion of the enlargement. The following year he 
said : “ It is now clearly seen, by the demonstration of time and experience, that if 
the State had firmly and prudently persevered in that policy to the end, we should 
now, without having paid any taxes, or incurred any necessity for taxation whatever, 
have free navigation. We resume those works after having paid about half a million 
dollars to contractors, after having lost for five years all the interest on more than 
fifteen millions dollars already expended, and incurred unascertained losses.” The 
impetus in favor of canal construction, with the necessity for special supervision of 
expenditures in connection therewith, led to the institution of the office of Auditor 
of the Canal Department in 1848. 

The State Government was now friendly to the completion of the enlargement, 
and to the perfection of the banking system. Millard Fillmore became Comptroller 
on the 1 st of January, 1848, and was followed by Washington Hunt in a little more 
than a year thereafter. The divisions in the Democratic party in 1848 resulted in 
the election of Hamilton Fish as Governor, and in 1850 of Washington Hunt as his 
successor. In 1851 a Banking Department was organized, and St. John, Schoon- 
maker and Cook were successively its Superintendents. The first general legislation 
with regard to savings banks was had in 1853. These institutions passed under the 
supervision of the Superintendent of the Banking Department, and were gradually 
systematized and rendered secure. 

Prior to 1844, there was no uniformity in the privileges accorded to, or restraints 
imposed upon, the railroads of the State, with respect to the carrying trade. Some 
railroads were allowed to carry freight during the entire year, without limitation ; 
others were permitted to take freight only when the canals were closed, and upon 
payment of tolls at the same rate imposed upon the canal traffic ; while other roads 
were not permitted to carry freight at all. By a law passed in 1844, all roads were 
allowed to carry freight during the suspension of navigation, and roads along the 
line of the Erie and Oswego canals were required to pay tolls to the State; and, by 


9 6 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


an act passed in 1847, they were permitted to carry freight throughout the year, and 
required to pay tolls. A general railroad act was passed in 1848. The competition 
with rival routes became so strong, or at least was so greatly feared, that tolls upon 
railroad freights were abolished in 1851, thus seriously diminishing the revenues of 
the Commonwealth. This was followed by the consolidation of the central lines 
between Albany and Buffalo in 1853. The great trunk railroad lines of the State 
were now completed or under way, except the Albany and Susquehanna; and when 
that was constructed, the Capital of the State became the natural railroad center in 
the interior, as it is located, with reference to the orography of the State, at the 
natural center of its great highway routes. 

The canals of the State continued to be the most engrossing public topic. 
Horatio Seymour was elected Governor in 1852. In his message to the Legislature 
in 1853 he said that “the power and the interest of the State of New York required 
the completion of the Erie canal enlargement, and the Genesee Valley and Black 
River canals.” The capacity of boats at this time was only ninety tons. He favored 
the prosecution of work by means of surplus revenues, and suggested an amendment 
to the Constitution so as to provide for the more speedy enlargement of the canals. 
The two Houses of the Legislature, however, could not agree, and they adjourned 
on the 15th of April without taking any action; whereupon the Governor reconvened 
them in Special Session, May 24, for the purpose of disposing of the question, 
which they did, an appropriation bill being passed, and a constitutional amendment 
adopted. This amendment was agreed to by the Legislature in 1854, submitted to 
the People, and approved by them, by a large majority. Under it the capacity of 
the Erie canal has been increased to boats of two hundred and forty tons burthen. 

In his message to the Legislature in 1854, Governor Seymour said that “the 
condition of our canals at this time demands expenditures upon them beyond the 
amount of their surplus revenues ; ” and, with reference to the increasing business of 
the railroads, he remarked that “ the canals would be of great value in controlling 
the rates of transportation.” The following extract records the entire success of the 
banking system : “ If the Constitution of the State shall be amended for the purpose 
of borrowing money to be expended upon the canals, there will be an additional 
amount of State stocks issued, which can be used under our present laws as a basis 
for banking. This will supply the demand for those securities, while the treasury of 
the State will be benefited by the additional premium on the stocks, which the 
demand creates.” Thus was finally brought to a successful issue the policy which 
met with a temporary reverse during Governor Seward’s administration ; and, by the 
adoption of the amendment, an enlargement not then contemplated was entered upon. 

The panic of 1857 was anticipated by Governor Seymour in his message to the 
Legislature in 1855, and the tendencies which indicated a commercial revulsion 



G>'?<sr+ ~z 

















THE COMMONWEALTH. 


97 


were pointed out. When it came, the stability of the banking system of the State 
was fully tested. The demands of depositors rendered necessary a brief suspension 
of specie payments, but there was no excitement among bill-holders, and no impairing 
of the value of bills. While all banks were compelled to suspend, the banks in the 
city of New \ork resumed on the 16th of December, within two months of the 
day of their suspension. The experiences of the crisis suggested some legislation 
tending to increase the feeling of security among depositors. The essential features 
of the perfected system were incorporated into the National Banking Law, passed 
February 25, 1863; and, under the operation of Federal law, the State banks became 
National banks. 

The sagacity of Seward, the firmness of Wright, and the decision of Seymour, 
combined to secure to the Commonwealth the ripened fruits of the most enlightened 
statesmanship. Seward was of nervous organization, ardent temperament and untiring 
energy ; of wide information and rich endowments ; thoroughly grounded in jurispru¬ 
dence, and earnest, elaborate, elegant and effective in style and manner, alike in 
oral address and written argument. Wright was cool, deliberate and thorough; of 
rare intellectual power and keen intuitions; quick to apprehend danger, but self- 
reliant in encountering it; of muscular fibre and heroic soul. These have passed 
away. Seymour remains —a mature and profound philosophical statesman, lustrous 
in life and character. He was a popular leader and a polished orator; tall, straight 
and prepossessing in appearance, of dignified manners and finished culture; in 
knowledge thorough, and in wisdom great. It was his fortune to close the epoch 
now under consideration, during which the prostrate canals and the prostrate 
finances of the State were rescued from chaos and disaster, the excellent features in 
the policies favored by Seward and Wright were combined in one enduring system, 
and both canals and finances brought to a perfection neither had anticipated. From 
that day to this, the State has been engaged in maintaining in comprehensive and 
aggressive unity the moral energies of Seward, the financial stability of Wright, 
and the material progress of Seymour; and administrative systems and constitutional 
principles have been approved or modified, according as they promoted or retarded 
the advancement of the Commonwealth, or affected its vitality, strength and char¬ 
acter. To Seward, Wright and Seymour belongs the honor of enrollment among 
the constructive Governors of the imperial Commonwealth of New York. 


13 


9 8 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


CHAPTER XXI. 

Regulating the Traffic in Intoxicating Liquors. — A Prohibitory Law Passed. 
Decided Unconstitutional and Repealed. — Rigorous Excise Enactments. — Divis¬ 
ions in the Democratic Party.—State Supervision of Railroads. — Telegraph 
Lines and Sub-Marine Cables. — The Atlantic Cable. — Insurance Department 
Organized. — Government of Cities. 

The policy of the State with reference to financial management, construction 
of the public works and general administration was now well settled. The ques¬ 
tion of regulating or suppressing the traffic in intoxicating liquors had been 
agitated for some time, and demanded settlement. An effort had been made in 
that direction, in 1845, by the passage of a law which provided that the towns 
and cities of the State should vote on the question of licensing the sale of intoxicat¬ 
ing liquors as a beverage, within their respective limits, in May, 1846, and each 
succeeding year, and if a majority voted “No license,” then licenses were not to 
be granted that year. This law was repealed in 1847. Discussion of the question 
continued, however, until the friends of prohibitory legislation secured control of the 
Legislature in 1854, when a prohibitory law was passed, to take effect in December. 
This was vetoed by Governor Seymour on the thirty-first of March. Myron H. 
Clark, the leading friend of the vetoed bill in the Senate, was thereupon nominated 
and elected Governor over Mr. Seymour by a plurality of three hundred and nine. 
A law similar to the one vetoed was accordingly passed in 1855, and approved by 
Governor Clark; but it was decided unconstitutional by the Court of Appeals in 
March, 1856, and was repealed in 1857. 

Mr. Clark was supported for Governor by Whigs and Democrats who were 
opposed to the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act, as well as by the friends of 
prohibitory legislation, and his election was facilitated by Democratic divisions. The 
mass of the party sustained the Federal Administration of President Pierce, and 
favored the re-election of Governor Seymour. An element in the party, known as 
“ Hard-Shells,” opposed the Administration, and sustained Greene C. Bronson for 
Governor, who had the support of the Albany Argus , long the recognized organ of 
the Democratic party at the Capital of the State. The Albany Atlas, which had 
been established as an exponent of Radical views, was now the organ of Federal 
and State administrations. In 1848 it sustained Van Buren for President and John 
A. Dix for Governor, who received some six thousand more votes than Cass for 
President and Walworth for Governor. In 1850 both wings of the party united 






I 









THE COMMONWEALTH. 


99 


on Seymour, but he was then defeated; in 1852, however, he was elected by the 
united energies of the party. I he defection in 1854 secured his defeat. Another 
and a very important element entered into the canvass. The American candidate, 
Daniel Uliman, received the support of Conservative Whigs and Democrats, who 
believed him to be stronger than Bronson, and he secured a very large vote. Thus 
there were foyr candidates in nomination in 1854. 

The question of State supervision of railroads was strongly agitated during 
Governor Clark’s term. The number of miles of road opened in the State from 
1831 to 1847, inclusive, was seven hundred and fifty-seven. Then began the great 
railroad constructing era, and sixteen hundred and thirty-six miles of road were 
opened from 1848 to 1854. The effect in reducing the rates of fare between 
Albany and Buffalo was great. The stage fare was formerly $20. The fare by 
railroad, in 1850, was $12; in 1853, $6.15, the fare being reduced to two cents 
per mile, in consideration of the abolition of tolls upon freight. It was then 
urged that railroads ought to be placed under the supervision of a Board of 
Railroad Commissioners, and, in 1855, a law was passed constituting such a com¬ 
mission, to consist of the State Engineer and Surveyor, one person appointed by 
the Governor and Senate for three years, and one person elected annually by 
the stockholders and bondholders of the railroads. The law was repealed in 1857. 
The financial panic that year, with the increase in the carrying trade of the railroads 
which followed their increased facilities and the remission of tolls, affected the 
canals unfavorably for a time. Work upon the canals was suspended, and a low 
toll-sheet was adopted in 1858 and 1859 I ^ut, on the revival of business, the old 
rates were restored in i860, and work on the canals was resumed. 

The practical application of the principle of electro-magnetic telegraphy by Mr. 
Samuel F. B. Morse, in 1843, and its adaptation to the wants of business,* was 
followed by its rapid introduction. On the 10th of March, 1854, Peter Cooper, 
Moses Taylor, Marshall O. Roberts, Chandler White and Cyrus W. Field met at 
the residence of the latter to take steps for the laying of a sub-marine telegraph 
between America and Europe. The enterprise was pushed until the cable was suc¬ 
cessfully laid in 1858, but failed in practical operation. On the first of December, 
in that year, stock to the amount of $1,834,500 had been subscribed; but the Civil 
War interfered temporarily with the prosecution of the project. It was revived in 
1865. The Anglo-American Telegraph Company was organized, with a capital stock 
of $3,000,000, and communication was permanently established July 27, 1866. 

The rapid growth of the insurance business, under the general law of 1853, 
and the insecurity of many of the companies, as demonstrated during the financial 

* S ee biographical sketches of Ezra Cornell, Hiram Sibley and Peter Cooper, in the third volume of “The Public Service.” 



IOO 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


crisis of 1857, rendered necessary the organization of an Insurance Department, 
which should maintain a supervision sufficiently strong to secure policy-holders and 
stockholders alike. A law for that purpose was accordingly passed in 1859, an d 
the Department was organized on the 1st of January, i860, with William Barnes 
as its Superintendent. 

Statesmen were now confronted with problems arising out of. the growing 
extent and complexity of business interests, and the concentration of great masses 
of people at the centers of commerce and manufacturing. It is not strange that 
apprehensions were widely felt and freely expressed, and that the dangers of 
crowded cities and of consolidated capital were deemed to be very great. Sym¬ 
pathizing with these fears, the Legislature passed a law, in 1857, uniting the 
counties of New York, Kings, Westchester and Richmond, under the title of the 
Metropolitan Police District, and assumed the supervision of the police adminis¬ 
tration of the district. 

The year i860 opened with great activity in business; and, notwithstanding 
the stirring agitation of questions concerning slavery in the territories, great interest 
was manifested in grave questions relating to the administration of State affairs. 
While business men were pushing forward with remarkable enterprise in every 
direction, and the people were striving to feel their way, by discussion and experi¬ 
ment, to an improved administrative system of government, Civil War came in to 
affect all their relations; to change the currents of business, here retarding and 
there promoting progress, and to renewedly illustrate the devotion of New York 
to the Union of the States. 


CHAPTER XXII. 


New York and the Civil War. — Union Defense Committee. — Prompt Movements 
of the State Militia. — State Board of Enlistments. — Its Efficient Action. — 
Number of Volunteers from New York. — Distinguished Commanders from the 
State. — The Navy. — Vanderbilt.—Sanitary and Christian Commissions. — Sums 
Expended by the State in the Prosecution of the War. — Electors Absent in 
the Army Allowed to Vote. 


The Rebels attacked Fort .Sumter, April 12, 1861, and were answered by a 
gun fired by Captain Abner Doubleday, a native of Ballston Spa, in this State, 
who, during the war, earned the characterization of “the unflinching Doubleday,” 















THE COMMONWEALTH. 


IOI 


particularly at Antietam and Gettysburg - . The answer of Doubleday’s gun, in 
Charleston Harbor, was the answer of the solid North. Party lines faded away. 
On the fifteenth, President Lincoln issued a call for seventy-five thousand volun¬ 
teers to defend the life of the Nation. That evening “The Union Defense 
Committee of New York” was organized in New York city. The officers were: 
Chairman, John A. Dix; Vice-Chairman, Simeon Draper; Secretary, William M. 
Evarts; Treasurer, Th. Dehon. The other members were: Moses Taylor, Richard 
M. Blatchford, Edwards Pierrepont, Alexander T. Stewart, Samuel Sloan, John 
Jacob Astor, Junior, John J. Cisco, James S. Wadsworth, Isaac Bell, James Boor¬ 
man, Charles H. Marshall, Robert H. McCurdy, Moses H. Grinnell, Royal Phelps, 
William E. Dodge, Greene C. Bronson, Hamilton Fish, William F. Havemeyer, 
Charles H. Russell, James T. Brady, Rudolph A. Witthaus, Addison A. Low, 
Prosper M. Wetmore, A. C. Richards, and the Mayor, Comptroller and Presi¬ 
dents of the two branches of the Common Council. The Committee were “ to 
represent the citizens in the collection of funds, and the transaction of such other 
business in aid of the movements of the Government as the public business may 
require.” The Committee acted with such energy, in concert with Major-General 
John E. Wool, that seven thousand three hundred and thirty-four men were sent 
to the field in ten days. The first to march was the Seventh Regiment, Colonel 
Lefferts. It was under arms when the news of the attack upon the troops in 
Baltimore, on the nineteenth, reached the city. The Seventh was followed, on 
the twenty-first, by the Sixth, Twelfth and Seventy-first Regiments. The Union 
Defense Committee remained in existence about one year. During this time it 
assisted in the organization and equipment of forty-nine regiments, or forty thousand 
men. It also disbursed, of funds appropriated by the Corporation of the city of 
New York, $759,000 for military purposes, and $230,000 for the relief of the 
families of soldiers. 

The Legislature passed an act, April sixteenth, “ to authorize the embodying 
and equipping of a volunteer militia, and to provide for the public defense.” The 
act created a State Board, which was authorized to enlist and equip not exceeding 
thirty thousand men, who were to be in addition to,* but part of, the militia of the 
State. The State Board consisted of Governor Edwin D. Morgan ; Lieutenant- 
Governor Robert Campbell; Secretary of State David R. Floyd Jones; Comptroller 
Robert Denniston; Treasurer Philip Dorsheimer; Attorney-General Charles G. Myers; 
State Engineer and Surveyor Van Rensselaer Richmond. Enlistments proceeded so 
rapidly that in one week eighty-two companies were accepted. The first of these 
volunteer regiments left the State April twenty-ninth, and the last July twelfth. 


* The New York State Militia then numbered eighteen thousand eight hundred and forty-six men. 




102 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


Besides these, the Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, Forty-first and Forty-second regiments, 
organized by the Union Defense Committee, and the Second, Ninth, Fourteenth 
and Seventy-ninth militia regiments, which volunteered for the war, were also sent 
forward. New York, Albany, and Elmira were recruiting rendezvous. Improved arms 
were received from Europe, under contract by the Board, and in less than three 
months the State placed in the field forty-six regiments, numbering thirty-seven 
thousand six hundred and eighty-eight men. With the completion of the first thirty- 
eight regiments, the powers of the State Board ceased, and thereafter all recruiting 
was under the authority of the General Government. 

The State of New York was constituted a military department of the United 
States, October 26, 1861, and the Hon. Edwin D. Morgan, who had been appointed 
Major-General, September twenty-eighth, was assigned to the command thereof. Dur¬ 
ing the war, the number of volunteers from the State of New York, for the periods of 
two and three years, was four hundred and thirty-seven thousand nine hundred and 
ten, of which number about two hundred thousand were mustered in after the 
expiration of Governor Morgan’s term, January 1, 1863. The larger proportion, 
therefore, entered the service during his administration. In addition to the volun¬ 
teers for long periods, there were mustered into the service thirty-five thousand five 
hundred and thirty-three men, members of the New York State Militia, for the 
terms of one and three months. 

This is not the place to write the history of the war for the Union; nor even to 
record the deeds of the sons of New York in the field. The shooting of Ellsworth, 
on the 23d of April, 1861, by the proprietor of the Marshall House, Alexandria, fol¬ 
lowed immediately by the killing of the latter by Brownell, caused great excitement 
throughout the country. Ellsworth was born in Mechanicville; Brownell was from 
Troy. Many heroes fell in battle after that, some of whom sleep in unknown graves, 
while of thousands of others room can only be found for an acknowledgment of their 
self-sacrificing devotion to their country. Then there were Ormsby McKnight Mitchel, 
Philip Kearney, Edwin V. Sumner, James Samuel Wadsworth, Guilford Dudley 
Bailey, James C. Rice, Lewis O. Morris, Lewis Benedict, John McConihe and 
others, who, smitten by disease or struck by fatal missiles, died that the Republic 
might live. Of the sons of New York who were prominently identified with the 
struggle, there may be mentioned William Buel Franklin, Daniel Butterfield, Henry 
Wadsworth Slocum, Thomas Francis Meagher, William W. Averill, Michael Corcoran, 
Daniel E. Sickles, Gordon Granger, Gouverneur Kemble Warren, Alexander S. 
Webb, Egbert L. Viele, John H. Martindale, Henry Wager Halleck, Francis C. 
Barlow, Frederic Steele, Thomas H. Ruger, Marsena R. Patrick, George Stoneman, 
Isaac F. Quinby, Joseph B. Carr, George L. Hartsuff, John McAllister Schofield, 
John C. Robinson, Francis B. Spinola, John H. H. Ward. 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


103 


The navy of the United States, at the beginning of the Rebellion, had little 
existence, except in name. I he veteran Paulding, in command of the navy yard 
at Brooklyn, hastened the fitting out of ships; and Corneli us Vanderbilt, in 1861, 
presented the United States Government with the Vanderbilt, a vessel which cost 
$800,000. Of the sons of New York, in the navy, may be mentioned Melancthon 
Smith, Silas Horton Stringham, Theodorus Bailey, Stephen Bleecker Luce. 

The women of the Republic, while intensely patriotic, were at once impressed 

with the suffering which would be caused by the war, and organized for its relief. 

First to be mentioned among them is Dorothy Dix, who offered her services 
gratuitously, and they were promptly accepted by the President, which acceptance 
was announced by the Secretary of War on the 23d of April, 1861. Among the 

first relief organizations in the country was the Women’s Central Association for 

Relief in the city of New York. On the ninth of June, the Secretary of War 
appointed Henry W. Bellows, D. D., A. D. Bache, LL. D., Jeffries Wyman, M. D., 
W. H. Van Buren, M. D., Surgeon-General R. C. Wood, General G. W. Cullum, 
Alexander Shiras, United States Army, and others who might associate with them, a 
Commission of Inquiry and Advice in respect of the Sanitary Interests of the United 
States Forces. On the 12th of January, 1862, a Board of Managers was organized, 
with Dr. Bellows for President and Frederick Law Olmsted for Resident Secretary, 
and thus the United States Sanitary Commission came into existence. This organiza¬ 
tion followed every army, and rendered invaluable service in mitigating the horrors 
of war. The people everywhere contributed to its stores and its funds, and at the 
close of the war it was found that it had distributed supplies to the estimated value 
of $15,000,000, and expended $5,000,000 in money. Of this amount, citizens of the 
State of New York paid their full proportion, relatively to their wealth. 

The United States Christian Commission, an organization similar to the Sani¬ 
tary Commission, but aiming also to supply the moral and religious necessities of 
the soldiers, originated with the Young Men’s Christian Association in the city of 
New York, on the suggestion of Vincent Colyer. A National Convention of 
Young Men’s Christian Associations was held in the city of New York, November 
14, 1861, and the Christian Commission was organized, with George PI. Stuart, of 
Philadelphia, for President. The entire receipts of the organization amounted to 
$6,000,000, of which citizens of the State of New York paid their full proportion. 

The Government of the State was as prompt as the citizens of the Common¬ 
wealth, and the people heartily sustained the Legislature in all its appropriations. 
A direct tax of $20,000,000 was imposed by Congress, August 6, 1861. Of this 
amount the sum of $2,603,918.67 was levied upon the State of New York, and it 
was assumed by the State, by an act passed April 12, 1862. During the war, the 
State paid for organizing, uniforming and equipping, subsisting, transporting and 



104 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


supplying soldiers, the sum of $3,745,554.98; for bounties, $37,244,000; for the 
relief of sick and wounded soldiers, $500,773; for the defense of the harbor of 
New York, $8,435.17; for the Bureau of Military Statistics, $52,994; and it paid 
in interest on the bounty debt of 1865 the sum of $15,864,536.99, and received in 
interest on reinvestments $2,451,130.25, leaving as the amount actually paid for 
interest $13,413,406.74. 


The following table gives this public expenditure in detail: 


Years. 

Organizing, etc. 

Direct tax. 

Bounties. 

Relief. 

Harbor de¬ 
fense. 

Bureau Statis¬ 
tics. 

1861 

$3,000,000 00 
604,481 83 
11,750 66 
121,834 49 
7,488 00 






1862 - 

$2,603,918 67 



$S,435 17 


1863 

1864 

1865 .... 
Interest paid, 

$6,600,000 00 
3,000,000 00 
27,644,000 00 
13,413,406 74 

$230,000 00 

$6,000 00 
16,300 00 
19,000 00 




200,773 00 






70,000 OO 


11,694 00 






Totals 

$ 3 , 745=554 9§ 

$2,603,918 67 

$50,657,406 74 

$500,773 00 

$S ,435 17 

$52,994 00 


The aggregate is $57,569,082.56. This sum represents only the outlay under 
authority of the State. To this is to be added the large amounts expended by 
local authorities, and contributed by individuals, in order to ascertain the cost 
of the war to the people of the State, in addition to their proportion of the 
expenditures of the Federal Government. 

The People of the State not only rendered loyal and vigorous support to the 
Federal Government, in its struggle for the preservation of the Union of the States, 
and carefully looked after the moral and material well-being of the soldiers in the 
field, but they saw to it that their defenders lost none of their political rights by 
reason of their absence from the State in the service of the country. On the 

8th of March, 1864, an amendment to the Constitution was adopted allowing 
absent electors in the military service of the United States to vote. The vote 
upon this amendment was: For, 258,795; against, 48,079. Thus was completed 
the evidence that, whatever political differences existed, New York was substan¬ 
tially a unit in support of all engaged in the prosecution of the war, and was 

ready to discharge any duty and make any sacrifice necessary to that end. 






















































THE COMMONWEALTH. 


105 


CHAPTER XXIII. 


Governor Seymour and the War. — The National Guard. — Invasion of Penn¬ 
sylvania.— The Riots of 1863. — Change from War to Peace. — Governor 
Fenton and the Revision of the Constitution. — Policy of Governor Fen¬ 
ton’s Administration. — Aid to New Railroads. — Vetoes by Governors 
Morgan and Fenton. — The Constitutional Convention of 1867. — Unfor¬ 
tunate Partisan Differences.— Provisions of the New Constitution.—John 
T. Hoffman Inaugurated Governor. — Submission of the Constitution to 
the People.—The Judiciary Article Adopted. — Rest of the Constitution 
Defeated. — Work of the Convention not Lost. — Low Tolls upon the 
Canals. — Unprecedented Use of the Veto Power. — Restricted Use of the 
Pardoning Power. — District Commissions, and their Abandonment.—The 
New York Charter of 1870. — General Laws Passed. — Fraudulent Audits 
in the City of New York. — Remedies for Misconduct in Office. 


The disruption of the Democratic party in 1854 was followed by eight years 
of Republican supremacy. Myron H. Clark and John A. King successively held 
the office of Governor for one term each, and Edwin D. Morgan for two terms, 
or four years. Horatio Seymour was then recalled to the office of Governor, 
assuming the discharge of its duties on the 1st of January, 1863. During this, 
his second term, important questions concerning the prosecution of the war agitated 
the public mind, and furnished issues between the two political parties. The reor¬ 
ganization of the State Militia, as the National Guard, was carried forward with 
energy, and the invasion of Pennsylvania by General Lee in 1863 was followed 
by prompt action on the part of Governor Seymour, in forwarding regiments of 
the National Guard to aid in driving back the invaders. While the city of New 
York was thus left without troops, in July, its peace was disturbed by a lawless 
mob. Governor Seymour hastened to the metropolis from the Capital of the State, 
addressed the rioters in a conciliatory speech and warned them by proclamation. 
The mob, after having terrorized over the city for nearly a week, dispersed peace¬ 
ably. Troy was also disturbed in a similar manner, and Albany and other cities 
were threatened with serious disorder. 

Abraham Lincoln was re-elected President in 1864, and was assassinated just 
as the war for the Union was drawing to a successful close. At the same time 
murderous assaults were made upon the Secretary of State, Hon. William H. 
Seward, and the Deputy Secretary of State, Frederick W. Seward, sons of New 
York, whose wise conduct of the department had isolated the Southern Confed- 

14 


io6 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


eracy, and defeated the efforts to secure official foreign support in its behalf. 
Reuben E. Fenton was elected Governor of New York in 1864, and was re-elected 

in 1866. Public attention was now concentrated upon the subjects of reorganizing 

civil government in the States lately in rebellion, and of remodeling the constitu¬ 

tional system of this State. The change from the vocations of war to the vocations 
of peace, the return of hundreds of thousands of soldiers to civil life and the 
resuming by them of ordinary pursuits, was not more wonderful than the intense 

concentration of the public mind upon questions of organic law which were of 
National and State concern. The Constitution of the Commonwealth only calls 
for consideration here. 

By the organic law of the State, the electors were required to determine, in 
1866, whether a Convention should be held to revise the Constitution. In antici¬ 
pation of this decision, the fundamental law was widely discussed, particularly 
among thoughtful citizens; and, unfortunately, parties crystallized around opposing 
theories of government. The vote in 1866 resulted as follows: For a Convention, 
352,854; against a Convention, 256,364. This majority of nearly one hundred 
thousand, however, was divided into various classes, differing in opinion as to the 
modifications it was advisable to make in the organic law. The messages of 
Governor Fenton and the legislation during his administration illustrate alike the 
agreeing and the diverging tendencies of the time. He favored a radical reform in 
the system of prison management, the reorganization of the courts, restraints upon 
State and local expenditures, the correcting of defects in the system of assess¬ 
ments and taxation, prohibition against special legislation, and encouragement of 
general laws. He disapproved of relief to contractors, urged that the National 
Guard be improved, military encampments established, and sustained State super¬ 
vision over the police and sanitary affairs of large cities. A Metropolitan Health 
law was passed, the State Board of Public Charities organized, the building of 
charitable institutions directed, the construction of a New Capitol approved, and 
new Normal Schools established. Governor Morgan, each year during his admin¬ 
istration, vetoed bills extending aid to the Albany and Susquehanna railroad; and 
the act making an appropriation thereto became a law under Governor Seymour. 
Governor Fenton pursued Governor Morgan’s policy, by vetoing acts in aid of the 
Plattsburgh and Whitehall railroad, and a bill repealing the restriction of the fare 
on the Central railroad to two cents per mile. This free exercise of the veto 
power was widely discussed in considering questions concerning the fundamental 
law of the State. 

A Convention to revise the Constitution was held, pursuant to the direction of 
the People. Delegates thereto were chosen at a special election held in April, 1867; 
the Convention assembled the 4th of June following, and adjourned sine die on the 










THE COMMONWEALTH. 


107 


28th of February, 1868. The Hon. William A. Wheeler was President of the 
Convention, and it included in its membership many of the ablest men in the State, 
of both political parties. The discussions were exhaustive, the differences sharply 
defined, and party lines closely drawn. Democrats antagonized most vigorously the 
provisions relating to suffrage and the registry of voters, and the failure to secure 
local government to cities; and other features of the proposed organic law were 
excepted to by various schools of politicians. The Constitution was adopted in the 
Convention by a strict party vote. It contained new and stringent provisions against 
bribery and improper influences at elections ; reorganized the Legislature; placed 
important restrictions upon the exercise of legislative power, in order to stop abuses 
in the disposition of public money; strengthened the veto power of the Governor; 
provided for a Superintendent of Public Works and a Board of Managers of Prisons, 
to be appointed by the Governor by and with the advice and consent of the Senate > 

created a Court of Claims; materially changed the Judiciary system; increased the 

power and responsibility of the Mayors; provided for the organization and govern¬ 
ment of cities by general laws, and placed restrictions upon the powers of Common 
Councils to expend money; directed the reorganization of the National Guard; 
strengthened the financial article of the Constitution of 1846 ; required that there 
should be a uniform and equal rule of assessment and taxation ; and made stringent 
provision as to corruption in office and as to bribery in officials. 

The Legislature of 1868 failed to agree on an act submitting the proposed 
Constitution to the People, and hence it was not acted upon until the general 
election in 1869. Meantime John T. Hoffman had been inaugurated Governor, as 
the result of the general election in 1868. The Constitution was submitted in 
four distinct propositions. The question of requiring a property qualification for 
colored persons, as a condition to participation in the elective franchise, was decided 

in the affirmative, as follows: For, 282,403 ; against, 249,802. The Tax article 

was rejected, as follows: For, 183,812; against, 273,260. The Judiciary article was' 
adopted by the following vote: For, 247,240; against, 240,442. The remainder of 
the Constitution was rejected, as follows: For, 223,935; against, 290,456. 

The work of the Convention, however, was not lost. 

The policy of the State with reference to the canals, prior to 1870, contemplated 
revenues sufficiently large to defray current expenses, carry forward improvements 
necessary to meet the increasing demands of commerce, and ultimately to pay the 
debt incurred for construction and enlargement. There was a growing sentiment, 
however, that the canals were adequate to the requirements of business, and that 
tolls upon them could be reduced without rendering them a burden to the State. 
Governor Hoffman, therefore, in his message to the Legislature in 1870, recom¬ 
mended that tolls be reduced, the contract system for repairs abandoned, and the 


io8 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


Canal Board invested with discretionary powers to the fullest extent permitted by 
the Constitution. This involved a radical departure in the administrative system of 
the canals, and was not adopted without opposition. It, however, became the fixed 
policy of the State. 

Governor Hoffman made unprecedented use of the veto power to prevent 
special legislation, and the encumbering of the statute books with unnecessary 
enactments. In the four years of his administration, during the sessions of the 
Legislature, he withheld his signature from four hundred and ninety-five bills, of 
which two were passed notwithstanding his objections. He established the practice 
of filing his reasons in writing, with bills remaining in his hands at the close of the 
session, from which he withheld his approval. Among the bills vetoed by him were 
several which granted State aid to railroad and other corporations. The Governor 
also visited and examined the prisons of the State, and urged an improved system 
of prison management. In 1870 he received more than a thousand applications 
for pardon or commutation of sentence, which were presented either in person or 
by written communication ; and granted eighty-five pardons, thirty-four commutations 
and one reprieve. Out of eight hundred applications in 1871, he granted eighty- 
four pardons, twenty-nine commutations and five reprieves. This restricted use of 
the pardoning power was a wise step in the direction of non-interference with the 
administration of justice by the courts. The Constitution requires the Governor to 
transmit, annually, to the Legislature a list of pardons, commutations and reprieves. 
Governor Hoffman inaugurated the custom of adding thereto his reasons in each 
case, and gave the names of officials and prominent citizens who had indorsed the 
application. 

In his message to the Legislature in 1870, Governor Hoffman alluded to the 
metropolitan and other district commissions, and urged the repeal of the laws 
authorizing them. This recommendation was adopted, and a new municipal policy 
was inaugurated, under which the supervisory authority of the State, in matters 
of practical administration, was surrendered, and large powers were vested in the 
Mayor. In the same spirit, a general law for the incorporation of villages was 

enacted, and the powers of the boards of supervisors of the several counties were 
enlarged. Other general laws were passed, through which much special legislation 
was avoided. A new revision of the statutes was ordered. The registry laws — 
except in the city of New York — were repealed. Proceedings in the case of claims 
against the State were simplified. The excise laws were modified, and the con¬ 

struction of new buildings for public institutions was carried forward. 

The discovery of gross wrongs in the government of the county of New York 
produced a decided reaction throughout the State. The re-election of Governor 

Hoffman in 1870 was followed in 1871 by the recall of the Republican party to 













THE COMMONWEALTH. 


109 


power in the Legislature and the administrative departments. This revolution was 
caused by the auditing of alleged claims against the former government of the 
county of New \ ork, to the extent of six millions of dollars and upward, under 
a general power to audit claims, conferred by the county tax levy of 1870. The 
fraudulent audits confirmed the wisdom of abandoning the custom of sending tax 
levies to the Legislature only to be increased; and the insertion of the clause 
referred to in the levy of 1870, settled public opinion in favor of conferring upon 
the Governor power to veto distinct items in appropriation and supply bills, in order 
to remedy the growing abuse of inserting doubtful and objectionable items in a 
bill which must be either signed or vetoed as a whole. 

The subject of municipal government was discussed by Governor Hoffman at 
length in his message to the Legislature in 1872. He held that concentrated 
responsibility was the true principle of organic law. He thought that subordinates 
should be liable to summary removal by the chief executive officer; that heads of 
departments should be appointed by the Mayor, solely, and liable to removal by 
him for misconduct; and that the Mayor should be subject to removal by the 
Governor. To the failure to provide these securities against mismanagement, he 
attributed the frauds in the metropolis. 


CHAPTER XXIV. 

Revision of the .Constitution. — Governor Hoffman’s Recommendations. — A Constitu¬ 
tional Commission Appointed. — Misuse of the Sinking Funds.—They are to be 
kept Inviolate. — Gifts and Loans to Private Institutions Prohibited. — Economy 
in Expenditure urged by Governor Dix. — The Lateral Canals may be Sold or 
Abandoned. — Expenditures upon the Main Canals Limited to their Gross 
Receipts. — Extra Allowances to Contractors Prohibited. — Claims against the 
State. — Extra Compensation Forbidden. — Powers of the Governor Increased.— 
Local Indebtedness Prohibited, except for Purposes of Government. — Other 
Amendments. — The Property Qualification. — Superintendents of Public Works 
and State Prisons. — Governor Dix Favors the Amendments. — Their Adoption by 
the People. — Beneficial Results. 

The demand for a revision of the Constitution of the State now became more 
imperative, and was emphasized by Governor Hoffman. He favored the concen¬ 
tration of power and responsibility in the hands of the Governor. He suggested 
that the Secretary of State and Attorney-General should be appointed by the 




I IO 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


Governor without the intervention of the Senate; that the State Treasurer should 
be appointed by the Legislature on joint ballot; that there should be a Superin¬ 
tendent of Prisons and a Superintendent of Canals, appointed by the Governor and 
removable by him ; and that additional safeguards against unwise and special legisla¬ 
tion should be provided. He also favored the reorganization of the Legislature, on 
a plan similar to the one incorporated in the Legislative article of the Constitution 
of 1867-68. At his suggestion, a Constitutional Commission of thirty-two citizens, 
sixteen from each political party, was appointed by the Governor and Senate. 

The act authorizing the appointment of a Commission to propose to the 
Legislature amendments to the Constitution was passed June 15, 1872, and the 
Commissioners were confirmed by the Senate November 22, 1872. The Com¬ 
mission met at the Common Council chamber in the city of Albany, December 4, 
1872, and organized by electing the Hon. Robert H. Pruyn Chairman, and then 
took a short recess. When the Commission reconvened, General John A. Dix had 
been inaugurated Governor, to which office he was elected in November, 1872. 

The Governor, the Commission and the Legislature of 1873 confronted the 
same problems. The questions which they were required to consider related to 
matters of public expenditures, rather than to methods of organization of the 
public service. Governor Dix, in his message, called attention to the misuse of 
the sinking funds, and the failure of several previous Legislatures to levy taxes 
sufficient to meet the appropriations made by them, and said : “ I believe it to be 
a just and salutary rule that no appropriation of money should be made without 
providing, simultaneously, the means of payment.” The Commission met the same 
question by recommending the following additional section to article seven of the 
Constitution : 

Section 13. The sinking funds provided for the payment of interest and the extinguishment of the 
principal of the debts of the State shall be separately kept and safely invested, and neither of them shall 
be appropriated or used in any manner other than for the specific purpose for which it shall have been 
provided. 

This amendment was agreed to by the Legislature of 1873, ar *d submitted to 
the people by the Legislature of 1874, by whom it was approved at the general 
election in November of that year. 

Governor Dix also called attention to the fact that the appropriations by the 
Legislature to private charities had so increased that two millions of dollars had 
thus been granted in the years 1869, 1870 and 1871. The Commission proposed 
to remedy this by amending article eight so as to provide that “ neither the credit 
nor the money of the State shall be given or loaned to or in aid of any asso¬ 
ciation, corporation or private undertaking.” This amendment was agreed to by 
the Legislatures of 1873 and 1874, and adopted by the people. 





% 






THE COMMONWEALTH. 


111 


The following extract from the message of Governor Dix in 1873 further 
illustrates the spirit of the time: “ I earnestly appeal to you to correct these 
errors on the part of your predecessors, by abstaining from all expenditures which 
are not indispensable to an economical administration of the government. The 
people of the State are already weighed down by enormous burdens of taxation. 
I believe it to be in your power to lighten these burdens by a prudent husbandry 
of our financial resources, by providing for a more strict supervision and manage¬ 
ment of public establishments which now make heavy drafts upon the treasury, 
and by restricting appropriations of money to State objects.” In his message to 
the Legislature in 1874 he said it was “due to the people of the State, already 
overburdened with taxes, that expenditures on most of the public buildings then 
being erected as charitable institutions should cease until the plans can be revised 
and their cost brought within reasonable bounds.” In his message in 1873 he 
expressed the hope that the Constitutional Commission would provide effective 
remedies against the large mass of special legislation which found its way upon the 
statute books. 

The Commission examined* the condition of the lateral canals, and found that 
in scarcely any of the years from 1863 to 1872 had either of them paid its ordinary 
repairs, and that while upon some the tolls were steadily decreasing from year to 
year, upon no one of them was there any apparent increase. They therefore recom¬ 
mended an amendment to section six of article seven of the Constitution. By this 
section in the Constitution of 1846 it was provided that all the canals of the State 
should remain its property forever; by the amendment it was provided that only 
the Erie, Oswego, Champlain, and Cayuga and Seneca canals should remain the 
property of the State, leaving it discretionary with the Legislature to sell, lease 
or otherwise dispose of the remaining canals. The purpose of this amendment was 
to limit the public works of the State to the self-supporting canals. The amend¬ 
ment was agreed to by the Legislatures of 1873 an d and adopted by the 

people. 

The canals were then about approaching completion, and their further improve¬ 
ment was being agitated. Without entering upon this subject, the Commission 
adopted the policy that the canals should be self-supporting, and recommended an 
amendment providing that “hereafter the expenditures for collections, superintend¬ 
ence, ordinary and extraordinary repairs on the canals named in this [the seventh] 
section shall not exceed, in any year, their gross receipts for the previous year.” 
This amendment was designed to prevent taxation for canal purposes, and was 
agreed to by the Legislatures of 1873 and 1874, in that spirit, and not because 
the phraseology was the best that could have been adopted. The amendment 
was approved by the people. 


I I 2 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


Before the adoption of the amendment to the Constitution of 1874, section 
three of article seven ended as follows: 

All contracts for work or materials on any canal shall be made with the person who shall offer 
to do or provide the same at the lowest price, with adequate security for their performance. 

The Legislature, however, had frequently allowed extra compensation to con¬ 
tractors in cases of alleged hardship. In 1871, Governor Hoffman vetoed two bills 
of this character, on the ground that this was not, in fact, letting to the lowest 
bidder, and was unconstitutional. No such bill was afterward passed, and such 
legislation was explicitly prohibited, by adding after the paragraph above quoted 
from the Constitution, the following: 

“ No extra compensation shall be made to any contractor, but if, from any unforeseen cause, the terms 
of any contract shall prove to be unjust and oppressive, the Canal Board may, upon the application 
of the contractor, cancel such contract.” 

By the provisions of section fourteen, the allowing of claims, which, as between 
citizens of the State, would be barred by lapse of time, was prohibited. 

The Commission proposed to so amend the Constitution as to divide the State 
into eight senatorial districts, but the Legislature did not agree thereto. The 
Legislature, however, adopted important restrictions upon its own powers, including 
the following amendments to article three: 

Section 19. The Legislature shall neither audit nor allow any private claim or account against the 
State, but may appropriate money to pay such claims as shall have been audited and allowed according 
to law. 

Section 24. The Legislature shall not, nor shall the Common Council of any city, nor any Board 
of Supervisors, grant any extra compensation to any public officer, servant, agent or contractor. 

The power of the Governor to veto the acts of the Legislature was increased 
by authorizing him to object to specific items in an appropriation bill, and by 
requiring the vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each branch of the 
Legislature to override any veto. 

Before the adoption of the amendments of 1874, the Governor could sign bills 
left in his hands upon the final adjournment of the Legislature, at any time during 
the year. This was prohibited, by incorporating an amendment requiring him to 
act upon all such bills within thirty days. 

The Commission brought together the statistical information necessary to show 
in clear and startling light the sources of the greatest burdens of the people. It 
ascertained that the aggregate bonded indebtedness of the counties, cities, towns 
and villages of the State was $214,314,676.58, contracted for the following purposes: 
In aid of railroads, $26,946,662.09; public buildings, $10,416,864.84; war and bounty, 
$26,934,966.19; roads and bridges, $36,658,144.59; water-works and fire apparatus, 
$ 2 9>335o83-79 I parks, local improvements and other purposes, $84,052,655.08. The 
total indebtedness amounted to ten and one-twelfth per centum on the then aggregate 


. THE COMMONWEALTH. 


”3 

valuation of the State, which was $2,124,034,143.46. The indebtedness was charge¬ 
able as follows : Upon counties at large, $46,685,264.40, or two and two-fifths per 
centum; cities, $137,539,609.34, or nine and three-sixteenths per centum; towns, 
$25,167,781.83, or seven and two-thirds per centum; villages, $2,204,700.09. This 
exhibit led to the addition of the following section to article eight: 

Section 11. No county, city, town or village shall, hereafter, give any money or property, or loan 
its money or credit, to or in aid of any individual, association or corporation, or become, directly or 

indirectly, the owner of stock in or bonds of any association or corporation, nor shall any such county, 

city, town or village be allowed to incur any indebtedness, except for county, city, town or village 

purposes. This section shall not prevent such county, city, town or village from making such pro¬ 

vision for the aid or support of its poor as may be authorized by law. 

The large local indebtedness of the State was incurred either from patriotic 
motives, or in aid of improvements promising to be of indirect, if not direct, value. 
In some instances, the expectation that this promise would be realized was not 
fulfilled; but in many others the hope was fully justified by results. It was, how¬ 
ever, plain that the time had come to prohibit the incurring of additional obligations, 
except for purposes of government, at least until present indebtedness is materially 
reduced. 

Amendments were also adopted providing new securities in the management of 
savings banks; prohibiting additional compensation to public officers ; prescribing a 
more stringent oath of office, and instituting additional safeguards against bribes 
and official corruption. 

The Commission also recommended an article relative to the government of 
cities, but it was not approved by the Legislature. 

The amendments to the Constitution of the United States having had the 
effect of extending the elective franchise to all colored citizens, article second of 
the Constitution was amended by omitting the property qualification and making 
other changes, including stringent provisions against the bribery of voters. 

The Constitutional Commission was not as successful in the matter of reor¬ 
ganizing the machinery of the State Government as it was in providing checks 
against squandering the public money. It recommended that only the Governor, 
Lieutenant-Governor and Comptroller should be elected by the people. The Secre¬ 
tary of State, Attorney-General and State Engineer and Surveyor were to be 
appointed by the Governor, with the consent of the Senate. The Treasurer was 
to be chosen by the Legislature, on joint ballot. A Superintendent of Public 
Works and a Superintendent of State Prisons were also to be appointed by the 
Governor, with the consent of the Senate. The Comptroller was omitted from 
the Canal Board. 

The Legislature of 1873 agreed to this amendment, with the exception that it 
included the Secretary of State among the elective officers. The Legislature of 

i5 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


114 

1874, however, disapproved of the omission of the Comptroller from the Canal 
Board, and dissented from the change by which so many elective State officers were 
to be thereafter appointed; and did not submit the article to the people. It was 
necessary, therefore, that a new article should be prepared and referred to another 
Legislature, chosen at a new election of Senators. This was done by the Legisla¬ 
ture of 1875, which unanimously adopted amendments providing for a Superintendent 
of Public Works and a Superintendent of State Prisons. These amendments were 
agreed to by the Legislature of 1876, and approved by the people the following 
November. 

The amendments, as adopted by the Legislature of 1873, were referred to the 
Legislature of 1874, and were commended by Governor Dix, as follows: “These 
amendments were matured after the most deliberate consideration by a body of 
citizens eminent for their ability and experience, representing in equal numbers the 
two leading political parties in the State, and they provide for defects in the Con¬ 
stitution which had been a source of great public inconvenience and injury. It is 
earnestly hoped that they may meet your approval.” 

These amendments, except as specified, were approved by the Legislature of 
1874, and submitted to the people, by whom they were ratified in November of 
that year. 

This action settled grave matters of public policy, which had been subjects of 
controversy for many years. The judicious direction given to this discussion by 
Governor Fenton in the beginning, and by Governor Hoffman at the close; the 
wise action of the Constitutional Convention of 1867-68, and of the Constitutional 
Commission of 1872-73 ; and the fidelity and sagacity of Governor Dix and those 
who shared with him the responsibility of administration at the critical juncture 
when experience had demonstrated the necessity of more stringent financial regula¬ 
tions and stronger securities against profligacy, waste and corruption in general and 
local governments, united in bringing about this most satisfactory adjustment. To 
these causes is to be attributed the escape of many localities in the State from 
bankruptcy; the purification of government in the city of New York; the relief 
of the people of the State from the burdens of oppressive taxation ; the general 
prevalence of official purity; and the happy union of public order with individual 
liberty, which crowns our free Commonwealth with richest blessings. 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


115 


CHAPTER XXV. 

The Organic Law of the State.—The Outgrowth of Experience. — The People Gov¬ 
ern. — Remedies for Misconduct in Public Officers. — Powers of the Governor. — 
Wisdom of the Legislature. — Effect of its Action. — The Judiciary. — Gov¬ 
ernment of Cities. — Temperance Legislation. — Compulsory Education. — The 
Legislature Carries the Amendments into Effect. — Canal Investigations. — 
Abuse in Canal Management. — Action and Recommendations of Governor 
Tilden. — Remedies Proposed by the Joint Committee of the two Houses of the 
Legislature. — Improved System' of Administration. — Diminished Revenues and 
Decreased Expenditures. — Abandonment of Non-productive Canals. — Increase of 
Local Indebtedness. — Governor Robinson’s Administration. — Expenditures upon 
Public Institutions. — Railroad Strikes. — The National Guard. — State Prisons 
and Public Works. — Finances of the State Managed upon Sound Business Prin¬ 
ciples.— Successful Inauguration of the New System of Administration. 

The organic law of the State of New York is the result of an experience of 
two centuries. The germinal principle, the sovereignty of the People, was more 

clearly enunciated in the Charter of Liberties two hundred years ago than it had 

then been in any other declaration of their rights; but the best methods of enforc¬ 
ing the will of the People have been ascertained only after long years of trial. 

Indeed, it may very well be that perfection has not yet been reached; that new 

evils may be the outgrowth of existing methods, and that changes will soon be 
necessary, in order to insure their correction. At the same time, it is clear that 
the modifications which were made in the Constitution in 1821, 1846 and 1873 
effected great improvements in the laws for the regulation of the public service of 
the State. 

The People now govern instead of being governed. The changes which have 
been made have so divided power among the various branches of the public service 
that neither is supreme over the others, and each can be held more directly 
responsible to the People; and every official can be arraigned before some tribunal 
having authority to suspend or remove for misconduct. The remedy for wrong¬ 
doing, by public agitation in the press and upon the platform, with the purpose 
of affecting elections, has been found to be insufficient; and now Mayors and other 
municipal officers may be removed upon trial, and State officers may be suspended 
upon charges. 

During the discussion upon this subject, two theories came in conflict; the one, 
that the Governor possessed, or ought to possess, powers of a summary character, 
and that he could remove, or ought to be authorized to remove, upon his own judg- 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


116 

ment, without the ordinary restraints which control the actions of judicial tribunals. 
The Legislature, however, decided not to clothe the Governor with this power with 
regard to State officers, and the Courts decided that he did not possess it with 
respect to local authorities. In the same spirit, it may be said that in increasing 
the powers of the Governor to veto legislation, it was not intended that he should 
interpose his objections to every bill against which he would vote if a member of 
the Legislature; but only to enable him to prevent expenditures or the enactment 
of laws which, in the conscientious discharge of his duty, he believes to have the 
disapproval of the People of the State. The Governor now possesses an initiative 
in the Executive Department which he did not have before the recent amendments 
to the Constitution; and this, with his power to suspend State officers, renders him 
actually the Executive of the State. Judicious restrictions limit his power, however, 
so that while he can be an efficient chief executor of the will of the People, he 
cannot assert superiority thereto, nor exercise arbitrary power over any branch of the 
public service. 

The adjustment of the relations between the various departments of the govern¬ 
ment was made by the Legislature. The work began in 1872, and has been but 
recently completed. From the beginning to the ending, the prevailing desire was to 
provide the best means for giving effect to the will of the People; and, while there 
were natural differences of opinion during the progress of the discussion, there is 
no reason to doubt the soundness of the conclusions reached. The Legislature 
responded, accurately and effectively, to public sentiment. By its wisdom, an 
improved organization of the public service has been effected, so that if at any time 
increased outlay in any direction shall be necessary, economy in the expenditures can 
be readily enforced, and fidelity in public servants easily secured. The effect of the 
changes has been, to diminish the power of the Legislature; to increase that of the 
Governor, and of Executive officers and Administrative departments, and to invest 
local officers and boards with additional executive and legislative authority. 

The Judiciary has always been an effective agent for the protection of the com¬ 
mon rights of all. It was said that the germ of the Revolution existed in the 
freedom of the press secured upon the trial of Zenger under the Colonial Govern¬ 
ment; and the experience of New York has been that its courts are uniformly 
obedient to the will of the People, and that a Judiciary elected by them is a safe 
guardian of individual rights. In the one recent case where the power possessed 
by the representatives of the People in the Assembly to call Judges to account by 
impeachment at the bar of the Senate was exercised, no odium attached to the 
Bench as a whole, and the efficiency of the system to secure the punishment of 
any judicial officer who fails in his duty as an honest and impartial administrator 
of justice was demonstrated. 






c z/ctst^o^X? d 




THE COMMONWEALTH. 


ii 7 


The failure of the Legislature of 1873 to agree to the amendment to the 
Constitution relative to the government of cities, proposed by the Constitutional 
Commission, was owing to doubt as to some of its provisions, and to a conviction 
that the different cities of the State will be better governed if their charters are 
adapted by the Legislature to local circumstances and needs than they will be if 
all are formed upon one constitutional model. In this spirit, the Legislature that 
year reorganized the local government of the city of New York in such a way as 
to insure more economical and more efficient administration. The fundamental prin¬ 
ciple of that charter, which has been preserved through all its amendments, is that 
of the responsibility of the Mayor for the administration of the affairs of the city, 
alike to the people who elect him, to the Common Council whose confirmation of 
his appointees is necessary, and to the Governor who can remove him for misconduct 
in office. The theory of Executive independence of the Legislative branch of the 
Government was not adopted either by the Legislature with respect to Mayors, or 
by the Commission with respect to the Governor. The Legislature of 1874 con¬ 
tributed to good government in the metropolis by passing an act for the consolida¬ 
tion of the city and county governments of New York.* 

The Legislature of 1873 also passed two laws in the interest of temperance; the 
one known as the Civil Damage act, by which damages might be recovered in case 
of sale of intoxicating liquor to habitual drunkards; and the other as the Local 
Option act. The latter bill was vetoed by Governor Dix. The same Legislature 
also passed an act for the protection of citizens in their civil and public rights. 
The Legislature of 1874 passed an act providing for compulsory education, enacted 
a more stringent excise law, and amended the laws relative to the police and parks 
of the city of New York. Adverse reports from committees were so numerous as 
to leave the Governor little opportunity to veto legislation; the Judiciary Committee 
of the Senate alone reporting against some two hundred bills. 

The amendments to the Constitution were adopted, as urged by Governor Dix, 
to provide for defects in the Constitution which had been a source of “ great 
public inconvenience and injury.” At the election in November, 1874, Samuel J. 
Tilden was chosen Governor. He was the first Executive of the State clothed 
with sufficient powers to meet the expectations of the people with respect to the 
expenditure of public money. The Legislature of 1875 was charged with the duty 
of giving effect to the amendments, by the passage of the general laws required 
by their terms, and by such other legislation as experience demonstrated to be 
necessary. This was done. One hundred and seventy-four general laws were 
passed. The amendment which restricted expenditures upon the canals to their 
revenues also necessitated action which should give effect to the requirement. 


*See Laws of 1874, chapter 304. 




118 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


The financial disasters of 1873 involved extended political and business conse¬ 
quences. Their full effect was realized, among boatmen, forwarders and others doing 
business upon the canals, during the season of 1874. In the winter of 1875, therefore, 
they petitioned the Governor for relief, representing that the unprofitable character 
of their business rendered necessary a further reduction of tolls. Governor Tilden 
thereupon sent a special message to the Legislature, under date of March 19, 1875, 
arraigning the system of managing the canals as being ill-advised and fostering 
grave abuses. The Legislature immediately took action with respect thereto. On 
the 26th, a concurrent resolution was adopted providing for the appointment, by 
the Governor and Senate, of a commission to investigate the management of the 
canals; and a joint investigating committee was appointed by the two Houses. 
The Governor was also authorized to appoint an Inspector of Public Works, but 
he did not avail himself of the authority. The investigating committee appointed 
by the Legislature consisted of Hon. Dan H. Cole, Hon. John C. Jacobs and Hon. 
James W. Booth, on the part of the Senate, and Hon. James Faulkner, Jr., Hon. 
Richard U. Sherman, and Hon. Frederick W. Seward, on the part of the Assembly. 
The investigating commission, appointed by the Governor and Senate April 8, was 
constituted as follows: John Bigelow, of Orange, Daniel Magone, Jr., of St. Law¬ 
rence; Alexander E. Orr, of Kings; and John D. Van Buren, Jr., of New York. 

These inquiries were in continuation of the movement which resulted in the 
adoption of the amendments to the Constitution, the primary objects of which were to 
improve the system of administration, and to establish every possible security against 
a recurrence of the evils which were promoted by the complex and irresponsible 
method of management which had prevailed. Plans for work, prepared by the 
Engineering department and approved by the Canal Board, with or without the 
required maps or specifications, would be changed by the Canal Commissioners, 
wisely or unwisely, and their alterations would receive the direct or indirect sanction 
of the Legislature; and these conflicts between the Canal Board and the Commis¬ 
sioners, involving on the one hand the Superintendents and other officers appointed 
by the Board, and on the other the appointees of the State Engineer and Surveyor, 
were productive of abuses which could only be corrected by vigorous measures. 

Toward the close of the session of 1875, Governor Tilden vetoed one bill 
providing for work upon the canals, and several items in another bill making reap¬ 
propriations for work theretofore ordered. These vetoes, with their accompanying 
memoranda, were filed June 20, 1875. The investigating commission appointed by 
the Governor and Senate submitted twelve special reports to the Governor during 
the year, and reported to the Legislature February 16, 1876, in which they stated 
that the explicit provisions of law were very rarely observed, and classified abuses 
as relating to the letting of contracts, the making of estimates for work, and the 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


119 

securing of relief from the Legislature; and they recommended as remedies the 
concentration of responsibility for canal management, the power of suspension or 
removal as a check upon public officers, and the enactment of laws for the preven¬ 
tion and punishment of abuses, and for the prosecution and punishment of unfaithful 
public servants. I he Governor, in a special message on the 24th of March, 1876, 
recommended that the Canal Board be empowered to continue the investigations and 
to close existing contracts for extraordinary repairs; that necessary appropriations be 
made to complete existing contracts; that appropriations be made to improve the 
water-ways, and that the Canal Board be directed to report to the next Legislature 
the specific improvements, in its judgment deemed to be necessary. 

The investigating committee appointed by the Legislature of 1875 made a pre¬ 
liminary report to that body, about the close of the session, and submitted its final 
report to the Legislature of 1876, „on the 25th of March. The recommendations 
made in these reports differed in some respects from the recommendations of the 
Governor, and were followed by the Legislature. In its final report, the committee 
entered into an elaborate examination of the abuses which had grown up under the 
system of divided responsibility, and recommended a comprehensive plan for prevent¬ 
ing their recurrence. Among the remedies suggested by the committee may be 
mentioned the adoption of the constitutional amendment unanimously proposed by 
the Legislature of 1875; the reorganization of the engineering force; the repeal or 
essential modification of the law of 1862 under which had grown up the system of 
extraordinary repairs, with the refusal of appropriations for that class of repairs 
unless absolutely essential to navigation, and only then in case the extent and cost 
were fixed; no appropriations to be made for extension and continuation of con¬ 
tracts, nor as payments for acts performed without sanction of law; appropriations 
and contracts to be for specific purposes alone; and better protection in making 
awards for canal damages. The report was characterized by an appreciation of the 
value of the canals, while condemning the abuses which had arisen under their 
management, and providing remedies therefor. 

The growing and remunerative business which continued through the civil war 
and until the revulsion of 1873 brought large revenues to the State, and justified 
either the application of the surplus to the improvement of the water-ways, or the 
remission of tolls. Public sentiment was divided between the supporters of these 
two policies; each was represented in the canal management, and plans were 
adopted or altered according as the one or the other possessed the power, or could 
secure recognition by the Legislature. When business diminished, and toll-sheets 
were reduced year after year, the logic of events settled the question. Expendi¬ 
tures having been limited to revenues, and revenues having largely fallen off, new 
work became impossible. The Legislature of 1876, therefore, did not follow the 


I 20 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


recommendation of the Governor, so far as the improvement of the water-ways 
was concerned; but passed an act to provide for the completion or cancellation 
of all pending contracts for new work upon, and extraordinary repairs of, the canals, 
and making an appropriation to pay the expenses of such necessary extraordinary 
repairs as may be approved of and directed by the Canal Board.* * * § The same 
Legislature also conferred upon the Canal Board the power to continue the inves¬ 
tigations which had been prosecuted under the authority of the Legislature of 1875. 

The Legislature of 1876 also took the initial steps in the abandonment of the 
non-productive canals, by the passage of an actf appointing a Commission to visit 
and examine the lateral canals, and to report thereon to the next Legislature. The 
Commission consisted of Warner Miller, of Herkimer county; William Loster, of 
Oswego county; E. W. Chamberlain, of Allegany county; and Artemus B. Waldo, 
of Essex county. The Commission submitted a report to the Legislature of 1877, 
dated January 17. The excess of expenditures over income, upon these canals, was 
reported as follows: Genesee Valley canal, $8,558,534; Chenango canal, $6,085,814.13, 
Black River canal, $4,910,445.92; Chemung canal, $2,976,706.67; Crooked Lake 
canal, $773,523.10. The Commission also recommended that these canals be aban¬ 
doned and sold, except the Black River canal, which was held to be necessary as 
a feeder, and some portions of the Chenango canal. The Legislature accordingly 
passed an act giving effect to the recommendations of the Commissioners.$ The 
Crooked Lake canal was abandoned on the passage of the act; and in 1878, by 
authority of the Legislature of that year, was conveyed by the Commissioners of the 

Land Office to the New York and Penn Yan Railroad Company for the sum of one 

hundred dollars. Portions of the Chenango canal were abandoned on the first of 

May, 1878. The Genesee Valley canal was closed September 30 of the same year, 

and the Chemung canal at the close of navigation in 1878. 

The Legislature of 1876 also placed the power of appointment of all engineers 
on the canals in the hands of the State Engineer and Surveyor, § and created a 
State Board of Audit. || Thus was perfected the legislation rendered necessary by 
the amendments to the Constitution, passed in 1873 anc ^ adopted in 1874. It is 
to be noted with regret, however, that in these years the local indebtedness of 
the State had increased thirty millions of dollars. 

Lucius Robinson was elected Governor in 1876, and at the same election the 
amendments to the Constitution providing for a Superintendent of Public Works 


*See Laws of 1876, chapter 425, page 443, passed May 25, 1876. 

\ See Laws of 1876, chapter 382. 

X See Laws of 1877, chapter 404, as amended by chapter 344, Laws of 1878; chapter 522, Laws of 1879, and chapter 
157, Laws of 1881. 

§ See Laws of 1876, chapter 385. 

|| See Laws of 1876, chapter 444. 







V 









THE COMMONWEALTH. 


I 2 I 


and a Superintendent of State Prisons were adopted. There was an almost imme¬ 
diate agreement upon the latter officer; but the organization of the department of 
Public YY orks was delayed for a year, owing to the failure of the Governor and 
Senate to agree upon a Superintendent. The Governor nominated General George 
B. McClellan for the office, but the nomination was rejected by the Senate. The 
following year he nominated Hon. Charles S. Fairchild, who was also rejected. 
Subsequently the Senate confirmed Benjamin S. W. Clark. The legislation rendered 
necessary by the amendment was passed, and thus was finally consummated the 
reorganization of the administrative system of the State, attempted by the amended 
Constitution of 1867-68, and provided for by the amendments of 1873. Governor 
Robinson applied the principles of the amended Constitution in the administration of 
the Government, and received the efficient support of the Legislature therein. The 
anticipations of ten years were realized under his watchful eye, the prisons being 
rendered largely self-sustaining and the canals self-supporting. 

During what was known as the railroad strikes in July, 1877, Governor Robinson 
was called upon to guard against riotous disturbances in various sections of the 
State. His energetic action, and that of the Adjutant-General, Franklin Townsend, 
the staff and various commanders, was so effective that no outbreak occurred, no 
lives were lost, and public order was speedily restored. The weakness and the 
strength of the military and of the State were alike demonstrated during these 
troubles. The fact that the National Guard needs to be improved, in order to 

attain its highest usefulness, was made apparent; but, at the same time, it was 

rendered clear that it is equal to any emergency, in the hands of a fearless 
Executive, for the preservation of public order and security. 

Governor Robinson continued the efforts of his predecessors, Governors Dix and 
Tilden, to put an end to large outlays upon new charitable institutions, and vigor¬ 
ously and fearlessly exercised the veto power, and exerted his official influence to 

enforce economy in public expenditure. During the twenty years he had been in 
public life, as member of the Assembly, Comptroller several terms and member of 
the Constitutional Commission, he gave evidence of superior abilities as a political 
economist; and from his staunch devotion to sound business principles in the con¬ 
duct of the fiscal affairs of the State, and the blameless purity of his official and 
personal life, he commanded the unrestricted confidence of the people. His admin¬ 
istration was of high character and eminently successful in guarding the public 
treasury, and he was followed in his retirement by marked expressions of esteem 
and good will. 


122 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


CHAPTER XXVI. 

The Elective Franchise. — Restricted to Freeholders during the Colonial Period 

AND UNDER THE FIRST STATE CONSTITUTION. — FREEMEN OF ALBANY AND NEW YORK. — 

Religious Liberty. — Extension of the Elective Franchise to Tax Payers. —All 
Restrictions Abolished with Respect to White Citizens. — Property Qualification 
of Colored Citizens Abrogated. — Use of Money in Elections.—Viva Voce 
System. — Introduction of Ballots. — Uniform Ballots Required. — Conduct of 
Elections. — Canvass of Votes. — Contested Elections. 

Freeholders only Avere allowed to \ r ote under the Colonial Government ; and 
“by freeholder,” said the Charter of Liberties, “is to be understood every one who 
shall have forty shillings per annum in freehold.” The same instrument provided 
that “ every freeholder within this Province, and free man in any corporation, shall 
have a free choice and vote in the electing of the Representative.” The veto of 
the Charter of Liberties in 1697 was folloAved, at the first session of the Seventh 
Assembly, by the passage of an act relative to the election of Representatives. 
Electors were required to be residents of the electoral district for at least three 
months prior to the issue of the Avrit of election, and to be possessed of a free¬ 
hold Avorth ^40. Catholics Avere not permitted to vote, nor to be elected to office, 
and Quakers and Moravians Avere virtually subject to the like disqualification at 
first, and until they Avere alloAved to affirm. The elections Avere held by the Sheriff 
at one place in each county, and voting Avas viva voce. Minor local officers Avere 
the only ones chosen, except Representatives in General Assembly. 

The First State Constitution contained the freehold qualification ; but divided 
freeholders into tAvo classes. Actual residents, Avho Avere possessed of freeholds of 
the value of ^100, o\ r er and above all debts charged thereon, Avere permitted to 
Amte for Governor, Lieutenant-Governor and Senators. Male inhabitants Avho had 
resided within one of the counties of the State for six months preceding the 
election, Avere entitled to vote for Members of Assembly, provided they owned, 
Avithin the county, a freehold of £20, or paid a yearly rent of forty shillings, and 
Avere rated and actually paid taxes. By an act passed April 9, 1811, these values 
Avere changed to corresponding sums in the Federal currency, viz. : $250, $50 and 
$5. Local officers theretofore elected by the People — as supervisors, town clerks, 
assessors, constables and collectors — continued to be thus chosen. Persons who Avere 
not freeholders but Avho Avere freemen of the city of Albany at the time of the 
adoption of the Constitution, or Avho Avere freemen of the city of NeAv York, October 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


123 


H> 1 775 - were entitled to vote for Assemblymen. No discriminations were made 
against blacks and mulattoes, except that they were required to produce authenti¬ 
cated certificates that they were freemen. The Constitution also provided that 
“whereas we are required by the benevolent principles of rational liberty, not only 
to expel civil tyranny, but also to guard against that spiritual oppression and intol¬ 
erance wherewith the bigotry and ambition of weak and wicked priests and princes 
have scourged mankind,” therefore, “ the free exercise and enjoyment of religious 
profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever hereafter 
be allowed within this State, to all mankind. Provided that the liberty of conscience 
hereby granted shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness or 
justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of this State.” 

I'he Constitution of 1821 allowed all taxpayers to vote for all officers elected 
by the People, except that colored citizens could not vote unless they were free¬ 
holders. It conferred the right to vote on every male citizen of the age of twenty- 
one years, who had resided in the State one year preceding any election, and in the 
town or county where he offered to vote six months, provided he had paid taxes 
within the year, or was exempt from taxation, or had performed military duty, or 

was a fireman; and also upon every such citizen who had been a resident of the 

State three years and town or county one year, and had performed highway labor 
within the year, or paid an equivalent therefor. Colored persons were not allowed 
to vote unless they had been citizens of the State three years, and were possessed 
of a freehold of the value of $250 over and above all debts and incumbrances 
thereon, and had paid a tax on that amount. Persons convicted of infamous crimes 
were not allowed to vote unless pardoned. 

A further extension of the elective franchise took place under the Constitution of 
1846, which provided that every white male citizen of twenty-one years of age, who 
had been a citizen for ten days, had resided in the State one year, the county 

four months and in the district thirty days, and had made no bet or wager on 

the result of the election, should be entitled to vote, provided he had not been 
convicted of an infamous crime; or, if convicted, had been pardoned therefor, and 
restored to all the rights of a citizen. An amendment to the Federal Constitution, 
which was proposed February 27, 1869, and the ratification of which was announced 
by the Secretary of State of the United States, March 30, 1870, added Article XV 
to that instrument. The first section of this article reads as follows: “The right 
of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the 
United States or by any State on account of race, color or previous condition of 
servitude.” This provision abrogated the property qualification for colored citizens 
in this State; and now every resident citizen not disqualified by crime has the right 
to vote for all officers elected by the People. The Constitution was amended in 


124 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


1874 so as to disqualify any “person who shall receive, expect or offer to receive, 
or pay, offer or promise to pay, contribute, offer or promise to contribute to another, 
to be paid or used, any money or other valuable thing as a compensation or reward 
for the giving or withholding a vote at an election, or who shall make any promise 
to influence the giving or withholding any such vote.’’ The same amendment 
provided the right to challenge, and prescribed an oath to be taken in such case. 
By an amendment to the Constitution, adopted March 8, 1864, no elector loses his 
right to vote by reason of absence in the military service of the United States. 

The viva voce system of voting continued throughout the Colonial period. A 
law was passed March 27, 1778, authorizing the use of the ballot in elections for 
Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, but retaining the viva voce system for members 
of the Legislature; but this also was done away with by an act passed February 
13, 1787. The object of this change was to secure the secrecy of the ballot. The 
accomplishment of this object having been in a large degree prevented by providing 
ballots the backs and captions of which were distinguished by emblems or other 
devices of the engraver, a law was passed by the Legislature in 1880 to secure 
uniformity of ballots, which required that all ballots must be printed on plain white 
paper and with one style of caption, which is described in the act. 

Voters in cities and large villages are now required to be registered. Inspectors 
of election, registrars and canvassers are variously designated. The right to appoint 
watchers at elections was secured by an act passed in 1880. 

When voting by ballot was first introduced, the boxes and the ballots deposited 
therein were directed to be returned by the sheriffs to the Secretary of State, in 
order that the ballots might be canvassed by a Joint Committee of the Legislature. 
This was done away with by an act passed March 27, 1799, and local boards insti¬ 
tuted, which were required to inspect and canvass the ballots, the result to be 
recorded by the town clerk, who was to return it to the County Clerk for the same 
purpose, by whom it was to be transmitted to the Secretary of State, to be by him 
also recorded. A Board of State Canvassers was created, consisting of the Secretary 
of State, Comptroller and Treasurer. A Board of County Canvassers was instituted 
in 1822, consisting of one inspector of elections from each town, and the Attorney- 
General and Surveyor-General were added to the Board of State Canvassers. The 
Board of Supervisors in each county is now the Board of County Canvassers for the 
county. The State Canvassers can only certify the result, and possess no judicial 
powers. Provision is made by law for the examination of witnesses and the deter¬ 
mination of facts by the courts in cases of disputed elections. In cases of contested 
elections for members of the Legislature, each House is the final judge of the 
elections and qualifications of its members — in all other cases, contests may be 
brought before the courts for review and decision. 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


125 


CHAPTER XXVII. 

Course of Immigration. — Progress of Settlement. — Increase in Population. — Density 
of Urban Localities. — Population of the Rural Districts. — Number of Families 
in the State. — Number and Value of Dwellings. — Voters and Males of 
Military Age. — The School Census — Children of the School Age. — Number 
and Value of School-houses. — Number and Salaries of Teachers. — Expenditures 
for Public Education. — Amount of the State School Tax. — Incorporated 
Academies. — Value of Property. — Attendance and Revenue. — Colleges, Value 
of Property. — Number of Graduates.— Debts of Colleges and Academies.— 
Charitable Institutions, Private, Local and State. — Value of Property. — 
Receipts and Expenses.—Appropriations of the State for Charitable Purposes.— 
Appropriations by Local Authorities for Local Charities. — Amounts of Private 
Contributions.— Statistics of the Churches. — Value of Property and Salaries 
of the Clergy. — Area of the State. — Acres of Land Assessed. — Valuations. — 
Local Taxation and Indebtedness. — The Debt of the State. — Local Indebted¬ 
ness Classified. — Bonded Indebtedness 

The New York pass through the Appalachian system, by way of the Hudson 
and Mohawk rivers, was the one first followed by emigrants going westward. 
Before the war of Independence, the course of population was from the Hudson 
and Mohawk to the head-waters of the Susquehanna. Subsequently, settlements 
spread westerly from the center of the State, followed by migrations to the north, 
east of Lake Ontario and the river St. Lawrence, and thence around to Lake 
Champlain. These settlements were uniformly on the plateau which stretched across 
the State. Isolated settlements were also made at Elmira and Binghamton. The 
settlements thus formed gradually extended and widened, until the State was occu¬ 
pied, with the exception of the Adirondack region at the north, and that portion 
of the rugged Alleghenian section which extends from Pennsylvania into south¬ 
western New York. The tide of immigration then extended up the western sources 
of the Susquehanna and the northerly branches of the Allegheny and the tributaries 
of the Genesee, until the south-western section of the State also became well settled. 
The population became more dense with each succeeding decade, while agriculture 
increased and manufactures multiplied. Internal trade and external commerce grew 
with this growth with great rapidity. Cities sprang up in the paths of commerce 
as if by magic, and the vast and varied resources of the State were rapidly devel¬ 
oped. New York had thus become the first Commonwealth in the Union in 1830. 
During the succeeding half century its population increased and its business interests 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


126 

prospered, until its wealth and enterprise assumed imperial grandeur alike in solidity 
and extent. 

The Census * of 1880 shows that the population of New York exceeds five 

millions, the exact figures being 5,082,871. More than one-half of this large popu¬ 
lation is classified as urban, under which designation all densely settled communities 

of 4,000 and upward are included. These are fifty-eight in number, with an 
aggregate population of 2,726,367. Much more than one-half of this urban popu¬ 
lation is located around New York harbor, 1,206,299 being included in the city 
of New York and 506,663 in the city of Brooklyn. These cities, with their large 

aggregate population of 1,772,962, are located at the gate-way of the sea. Next 
to them in numbers is Buffalo, at the gate-way of the lakes, with a population of 
155,134. Next to this is Albany, with a population of 90,758; but with it ought 
to be included Troy, West Troy and Cohoes, and suburban villages which are the 
mere overflow of Troy, in order to show the numbers of the population which 

surround the head of navigation on the Hudson. 1 he aggregate is 196,573. 
These three great centers of population are the gates of commerce. Next comes 
Rochester, with a population of 89,366; then Syracuse, with a population of 
51,792; and Utica, with a population of 33,914, with several smaller but thriving 
cities, each of which sits at the gate of trade with a rural population. 

The rural population of the State aggregates 2,356,504. 

The total number of families in the State, in 1880, was 1,078,905, and the 
total number of dwellings was 772,512. The total number of dwellings in 1875 

was 728,668, of which 226,284 were within cities, and 502,404 were without the 

cities of the State. The total value of the dwellings in cities was estimated at 

$1,811,237,252, and of those without the cities it was $653,796,382. 

The number of males of voting age in the State, in 1875, was 1,267,522, of 
which number 126,060 were aliens, leaving 1,141,462 as the total number of voters. 
Of this number 747,280 were born in the United States. The number of males 
between eighteen and forty-five, the military age, was 956,874. 

These statistics show that, in mere numbers, the State of New York is an 
empire in itself. The statistics with respect to education, to charities and churches, 
show that as a social empire it is unrivaled among republics ; and the statistics of 
its various business enterprises will give some conception, though an inadequate 
one, of the imperial proportions of its trade and commerce, and of its productive 
industries. 


* Acknowledgment is due to Mr. C. W. Seaton, Superintendent of the Census, not only for the results of the Census 
as far as printed, but also for preliminary tables, prepared especially for this sketch. The statistics here given are, there¬ 
fore, fully authenticated in all substantial respects; but some of them are subject to such slight changes as may be made 
by more complete returns. 



THE COMMONWEALTH. 


127 


The number of persons between five and eighteen years, the school age, in 
T ^ 75 > was I > 2 79 ’ 457 > °f which number 639,980 were males and 639,477 were females. 
The total number of children in the State, in 1880, according to the school census, 
between the ages of five and twenty-one years, was 1,641,173; the total attendance 
at the public schools, 1,031,593. 

The number of school-houses in the cities of the State, in 1880, was 434, valued 
at $20,230,928, or an average value for school-houses and sites, of $46,615.04. The 
number of school-houses in the towns of the State were 11,465, valued at $10,516,581; 
an average of $917.27. The total number of school-houses in the State was 11,899; 
value, $30,747,509. I he total number of teachers employed in the common schools 
of the State was 30,730 ; males, 7,992; females, 22,738. The amount expended for 
teachers’ wages was: Cities, $4,296,887.89; towns, $3,342,033.99 ; total, $7,638,921.88. 
The average annual salary was: Cities, $675.82; towns, $234.70; weekly average, 
$16.68; towns, $7. The total expenditure for the maintenance of public schools 
was $ 10,296,977.26. I he total expenditure, for the maintenance of public educa¬ 
tional interests, not including appropriations made to orphan asylums and other 
public charities in which instruction is given, was $10,805,872.09. The amount 
of the State tax levied for the support of common schools, in the year 1880, was 
$2,862,088.12. 

There were eighty-five incorporated academies in the State in 1880, the 
property of which was valued as follows: Lots and buildings, $2,294,193; libraries 
and apparatus, $191,240; other property, $835,075; total, $3,320,510. The number 
of academies and academic departments was 237; instructors, 1,102; scholars, 
31,099; academic scholars, 8,356. The financial exhibits show: revenue, $1,058,776; 
expenditures, $1,013,780. 

In 1881, there were twenty-two colleges of arts in the State; eleven schools of 
medicine ; four schools of law, and three schools of professional science. In these 
forty institutions 684 instructors were employed, and there were 9,923 students. The 
number of graduates during the year was 1,344, and the total number who had 
graduated therefrom was 31,752. The buildings and grounds belonging thereto were 
valued at $7,108,536; the educational collections at $1,515,331; other property, 
$10,671,738; total, $19,295,805. 

The debts of the colleges aggregated $772,127; of the incorporated academies, 
$368,669; total, $1,140,796. 

The number of orphan asylums, homes of the friendless, industrial schools 
and similar institutions, in 1880, as shown by the report of the State Board of 
Charities, was 161. The value of the real estate owned by these institutions was 
$10,447,176.62; personal property, $3,140,779.57; total, $13,587,956.19. Total indebt- 


128 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


edness, $1,672,733.55. Total receipts, $3,883,809.64; expenditures, $3,465,467.13. 
Total number of persons supported, 42,439. 

The number of hospitals reported was 48; value of real estate, $5,981,712.83 ; 
personal property, $1,987,009.93 ; total value of property, $7,968,722.76 ; total indebt¬ 
edness, $470,836.16. Total receipts, $1,172,253.09; expenditures, $1,078,701.81. 1 otal 

number under treatment, 22,522; beneficiaries, 13,573- The number of dispensaries 
the statistics of which were given separately, was 21. Value of real estate, 
$284,768.98 ; personal property, $162,258.75 ; total, $447,027.73. Total indebtedness, 
$48,204.71. Receipts, $126,269.81 ; expenditures, $104,312.75. 

The number of county poor-houses was 56 ; acres of land connected therewith, 
7,926 ; value of establishments, $2,094,455.33 ; persons supported and relieved, 
78,370; expenditures, above revenue from farms, $1,186,023.30. 

Number of city alms-houses, 6; acres of land connected therewith, 251; value 
of establishments, $4,106,600; persons supported and relieved, 55,279; expenditures, 
$1,123,066.45. 

The total number of persons supported in the poor-houses and alms-houses was 
57,925; temporarily relieved, 79,852; total, 137,777; under care at the close of the 
year, 15,870. Total expenses for maintenance and care in-doors, $1,613,581.90; for 
out-door aid, $695,507.85 ; estimated value of pauper labor, $74,488.35. 

There are twelve State institutions for the care of the insane and of idiots, the 
blind and the deaf and dumb, and for the reformation of juvenile delinquents, 
capable of providing for 6,555 inmates, and possessed of 2,542 acres of land valued 
at $800,196; value of buildings, $7,156,415.68; personal property, $585,064.61; total 
value of property, $8,541,676.29. The receipts for the year 1880 were $1,644,559.60; 
expenditures, $1,525,077.27. The total receipts of these institutions from the State 
aggregated $757,971.87. 

The State also paid to various orphan asylums amounts aggregating $167,682.60. 
The appropriations by boards of supervisors to this class of institutions amounted to 
$372,728.30, and by city authorities to $1,205,727.31. The amount of donations and 
voluntary contributions was $588,942.77. The receipts of hospitals and dispensaries 
from boards of supervisors amounted to $34,455.81; from cities, $157,524.13; and 
from donations and voluntary contributions, $366,451.27. 

The number of church organizations in the State, as shown by the census of 
1875, was 6,243, an d their aggregate membership was 1,177,537. The church edifices 
contained 2,537,740 sittings ; and with the lots upon which they were erected were 
valued at $101,105,765. The value of the other real estate owned by church organ¬ 
izations was estimated at $16,491,385. The sum of $5,308,231 was paid in salaries 
to the clergy during the year. 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


129 


I he following is a recapitulation of the amount of money invested in the 
property of churches, educational and charitable institutions in the State : 


THE CHURCHES, 
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS: 
School-houses, 

Academies, - 
Colleges, .... 

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS: 
State, - 
Asylums, etc., 

Hospitals, - 
Alms-houses, - 
Poor-houses, 


$117,597, 151 00 


$30, 747, 509 00 
3, 320, 510 00 
19,295,805 00 


$8, 541,676 29 

13, 587,956 19 

7,968, 722 76 
4, 106, 600 00 
2,094,455 33 


53, 363, 824 00 


36,299,410 57 


Total, 


$207,260,385 57 


1 he area of the State of New York is 47,620 square miles. The total number 
of acres of land assessed in the State, exclusive of cities, is 27,152,282. The 
counties of New York, Kings and Westchester not being included in this statement, 
it is advisable to view the State as a whole, exclusive of these counties. The 
aggregate valuations of the three counties named, in 1880, was $1,577,745,976, and 
the aggregate taxation for local purposes, exclusive of the school tax imposed by 
the State, was $33,206,526.86. In the remainder of the State, the aggregate valua¬ 
tion was $1,103,511,630, and the local taxation, exclusive of the school tax, was 

$10,084,103.99. The aggregate net local indebtedness in the three counties named 
was $154,279,468; of the remainder of the State, $56,907,114. The aggregate 
taxation throughout the State in 1880 was $49,323,46047. Of this amount only 
$6,000,000 were for State and school purposes, leaving a remainder of $43,000,000 
of taxation imposed for local purposes. The amount of the State debt, net, Sep¬ 
tember 30, 1880, was only $6,936,879.83. 

The aggregate public indebtedness of the State of New York, notwithstanding 
the small amount of the State debt proper, exceeds the aggregate indebtedness of 
an) 7 other State. The public indebtedness of Pennsylvania, which is the next in 
amount to New York, is $114,034,759. This is nearly equaled by the indebtedness 
of the city of New York alone. The net debt per capita of communities having a 

population of 7,500 and upward in the State of New York is $68.67. This is 

exceeded elsewhere as follows: In the District of Columbia the net debt per capita 
is $127.66; in Maine it is $98.78; in South Carolina, $83.04; in Louisiana, $81.19; 
in Georgia, $78.39; in New Jersey, $73.34. The average indebtedness per capita 
throughout the United States, in communities having a population of 7,500 and 

1 / 













130 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


upward, is $51.15. Besides the States named, this average is exceeded in the follow¬ 
ing States: Virginia, $66.65; Alabama, $65.59; Tennessee, $65.20; Rhode Island, 
$59.28; Missouri, $58.98; Massachusetts, $54.67; Pennsylvania, $51.57. 

The local indebtedness of the State of New York may be classified as follows : 
Communities having a population of 7,500 and upward, $177,239,951 ; towns and 
communities having a population less than 7,500, $20,966,890; counties, $12,399,308; 
school districts, '$580,433. The following table shows the indebtedness of various 
cities and counties having the largest aggregates : 


CITIES. 


COUNTIES. 


New York, - 

$109,425,414 

Ulster, .... 

$2,404,543 

Brooklyn, 

38,040, 000 

Queens (except L. I. City), 

1, 844, 624 

Buffalo, - 

8, 211, 934 

Chenango, - 

1, 821,097 

Rochester, 

5, 440, 686 

Westchester (except Yonkers), 

1, 577, no 

Albany, .... 

3, 683, 765 

Orange, .... 

b 45 b 238 

Poughkeepsie, 

b 939 , J 9 8 

Oneida, - 

1, 333 . 294 

Yonkers, .... 

1, 389, 000 

Jefferson, - 

b 210, 571 

Syracuse, 

b 35b 500 

Delaware, 

1.071, 363 

Oswego, .... 

1,264, 224 

Cayuga, .... 

1, 012, 226 

Troy, .... 

958, 296 

Richmond, 

1, 010, 568 

Long Island City, 

950, 000 

Madison, - 

948, 318 


The following table will show the purposes for which the bonded debt of cities 
and towns was incurred : 

Funding floating debt, 

Water supply, 

Streets,. 

Parks,. 

Bridges,. 

Refunding old indebtedness, 

War, ..... 

Improving water-ways, 

Railroad and other aid, 

Public buildings, 

Sewers,. 

Schools and libraries, 

Fire department, - 
Miscellaneous, - 
Cemeteries, .... 


$208, 536, 882 


$46, 395 ) 944 
39 ) 349 ) 255 
31, 858, 680 

27. 563, 171 

12, 202, 150 
11,985, 500 
8, 195, 705 
3 , 053, 500 
8, 028, 380 
7 . 841, 156 
3, 286, 000 
b 333, 700 
b 194 , 939 
b 137 , 302 
hi, 500 


Total, 


















THE COMMONWEALTH. 


i 3 1 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Occupations. — Agricultural Statistics. — Acreage, Number, Size and Value of Farms.— 
Fences, Fertilizers, Live Stock and Products. — Statistics of Iron Production.— 
Capital Invested.— Employees and Wages Paid.—Value of Materials. — Value 
and Weight of Products. — Statistics of Leading Manufactures. — Transporta¬ 
tion.— Commerce.—Exports and Imports.— Revenue. — Banking and Insurance.— 
Corporations. — Moral and Material Results of Free Government. 


The number of persons engaged in various occupations in the State, according 
to the census of 1875, was L 5 37,726 — males, 1,275,372 ; females, 262,354. The 
occupations, and the number engaged therein, respectively, were classified as follows : 
Manufacturers, 498,321; professional and personal, 422,805; agriculture, 351,628; 
trade and transportation, 264,972. 

The following table gives the selected statistics of agriculture for the State of 
New York as returned at the tenth census of the United States: 


ACRES OF FARM LANDS: 


Tilled, 

Meadow, 

Woodland and forest, 
Other unimproved, 


NUMBER AND SIZE OF FARMS: 


Under three acres,. 

Three acres and under ten, - - - 

Ten acres and under twenty, 

Twenty acres and under fifty, 

Fifty acres and under one hundred, 

One hundred acres and under five hundred, - 
Five hundred acres and under one thousand, 
One thousand acres and over, 


Total number, 


TENURE OF FARMS: 

Occupied by owner, 

Rented for fixed money-rental, 
Rented for shares of produce, 


- 

12, 40O, 649 

- 

5, 317, 213 

- 

5; 195, 795 


867, 097 



370 


14, 543 

- 

17, 229 

- 

40, 386 

- 

70, 661 

- 

9 6 , 2 73 

- 

1, 315 

- 

281 

- 

241,058 


201, 186 


18, 124 
21, 748 

- 

241,058 


Total, 


















THE COMMONWEALTH. 


132 


VALUES OF FARMS, ETC.: 

Farms — including lands, fences and buildings, .$1,056, 176, 741 

Implements and machinery, . 4 2 , 59 2 , 74 1 

Live stock, - -.- 117,868,283 

FENCES: 

Cost of building and repairing in 1879,. $4,915,017 


FERTILIZERS: 

Purchased in 1879,.. - $ 2 , 70,477 


LIVE STOCK — Number on farms June i, 1880: 

Horses, - - - .. 610,358 

Mules and asses,. 5,072 

Milch cows,. ------- 1,437,855 

Working oxen, - - - . 39,633 

Other cattle,.- - - - 862,233 

Sheep—Exclusive of Spring Lambs,.- 1,715, 180 

Swine,. 75 L 9°7 


DAIRY PRODUCTS, 1879: 

Gallons of milk sold or sent to butter and cheese factories, - 231,965,533 

Pounds of butter made on farms,. 111,922,423 

Pounds of cheese made on farms,. 8, 362,590 

WOOL CLIP — Spring of 1880: 

Number of pounds, - . 8,827, 195 

POTATOES, 1879: 

Bushels of Irish, - .- 33,612,313 

Bushels of sweet, .. 6,833 


HOPS: 

Number of pounds, 

TOBACCO, 1879: 

Number of acres, 
Number of pounds, 

CEREAL PRODUCTS, 1879: 
Oats, - 
Indian Corn, 

Wheat, 

Barley, 

Buckwheat, 

Rye, - 


21,663, 131 


Number of Acres. 
I, 26l, I7I 
779, 272 
736, 611 
356, 629 
291, 228 
244, 923 


4 , 937 
6, 481,431 


Number of Bushels. 

37, 575, 506 
25, 875,480 
11, 587, 766 

7 , 79 2 , 062 
4, 461, 200 
2, 634, 690 







































THE COMMONWEALTH. 


New \ ork is the principal hop-raising State in the United States. The number 
of acres of land in this State devoted to the cultivation of hops in 1879 was 48,872, 
and the total production was 21,663,131 pounds. It is estimated that this production 
was increased twenty per cent in 1880 and 1881! The counties of Otsego, Oneida, 
Madison and Schoharie produced in 1879 more than two-thirds of all the hops raised 
in the State, and more than one-half of the entire crop of the United States. The 
entire production of these counties in 1879 was 15,323,516 pounds; the acreage 
devoted to the cultivation of hops was 26,802 — an average yield of about 572 
pounds per acre. Four contiguous counties west of this group show the largest 

yield per acre, owing to the fact that the best lands only are there devoted to the 
raising of hops. I hese counties are Wayne, Monroe, Livingston and Ontario. The 
average yield in Ontario is exceeded by the average yield in Genesee. The counties 
showing the largest average production are Wayne, Monroe, Livingston, Oneida, 
Genesee, Ontario and Madison. 

The largest average yield of oats is in the counties of western New York 
which slope toward Lake Ontario, and the largest production of wool is in the 

same region. Indian corn and rye are staple products on Long Island and the 
lower Hudson, and are well cultivated on the upper Hudson. Western New York 
and the southern-central counties produce more than average crops of Indian 

corn, the yield being largest near Lake Ontario; and the chief rye section is from 
the lower Hudson diagonally across the State to Lake Ontario. The average yield 
of dairy products is greatest in the belt of counties stretching westerly from Albany. 
Western New York, once almost exclusively devoted to wheat, still maintains the 

highest place in this production, and the counties of the central plateau, along the 
line of the railroad, also yield above the average. Central and western New York 

are above the average with respect to buckwheat, the yield on the southern tier 

being relatively the largest. The largest average yield of potatoes is on the 

central plateau. The yield of hay is above the average in Orange, Columbia and 

Rensselaer, and in the counties along the central plateau westerly through the lake 
region. Tobacco is raised to a considerable extent in Onondaga, Chemung, Steuben, 
Cayuga, Dutchess, Tompkins, Orleans, Broome, Putnam, Madison, Tioga and Mon¬ 
roe. Fruit is widely cultivated in western New York, and the vine bears largely on 
the southern slopes of its hills. 

The sections of the State least adapted to agriculture are the mountainous 
regions west of the Hudson river and Lake Champlain, and the wild portions of 
Steuben, Allegany and Chautauqua counties. The lumber interest is large in these 
various sections, and tanneries abound. West of the Hudson, bluestone and water 
limestone of excellent quality are found in enormous quantities. The salt springs 
at Syracuse constitute a prominent and profitable industry. 


134 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


The production of iron is an important industry in this State. The first works 
established by a citizen of New York were erected by Philip Livingston upon 
Ancram creek, Columbia county, a short time prior to 1 74 °- Mines of rich ore 
were discovered in Orange county during the last century, and that county was 
then the chief seat of iron manufacture in the State. The Sterling Iron Works 
are the oldest in New York. There were iron works in Dutchess county in 1765. 
The celebrated Champlain iron district is now the most important one in the State. 
It comprises the counties of Essex, Clinton and Franklin. Its development was 
begun about 1800, and the first works in Essex county were built in 1801, and 
others were soon after erected. The district now contains six rolling-mills, six 
blast-furnaces and twenty-two forges. The forges are all true bloomaries, manu¬ 
facturing blooms, chiefly for conversion into steel, directly from the rich magnetic 
and specular ores of the district. New York makes most of the blooms that 
are made from ore. After 1840, when anthracite coal was applied in the manu¬ 
facture of pig iron on the Hudson and elsewhere in the State, the production of 
iron came into prominence. Pennsylvania and Ohio are first and second, respect¬ 
ively, in the list of iron producing States. In 1870 New York was third in the 
list, and it still maintains that rank, although the increase from 1870 to 1880 was 
far below the general increase throughout the country. The production in the State 
has increased from 448,257 tons to 598,300 tons, or thirty-three per cent, while the 
general increase in production is ninety-eight and seventy-six-hundredths per cent. 
The increase of capital invested in the production of iron in this State has been 
thirty-three per cent, and the general increase eighty-nine and sixty-eight-hundredths 
per cent. The principal iron manufacturing counties are: Rensselaer, producing 
177,967 tons; Essex, 66,725 tons; Dutchess, 61,637 tons; Albany, 40,611 tons; New 
^ ork, 31,103 tons; Columbia, 30,545 tons; Chemung, 30,053 tons; Orange, 27,548 

tons; Erie, 25,015 tons; Onondaga, 24,445 tons ; Clinton, 23,634 tons; Oneida, 
21,108 tons. Among the founderies for manufacturing products of iron may be 
mentioned those for the manufacture of nails and Bessemer steel at the works of 
the Albany and Rensselaer Iron and Steel Company, Troy, &nd those for the manu¬ 
facture of horseshoes at Burden’s Mills, in the same city. The rolling-mills of Troy 
are the most important in the State. The manufacture of nails was formerly carried 
on extensively at Ramapo, Rockland county, but has been superseded by the manu¬ 
facture of spring steel. The manufacture of stoves is a leading and extensive 
industry at Albany. 

The following table, compiled from various tables in the report of James M. 
Swank, special agent of the Census Bureau, to the Superintendent of the Census, 
Hon. Francis A. Walker, gives the principal statistics of the iron producing industry 
in this State: 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


135 


Production of Iron. 


PRODUCTIONS. 

Number of Establishments. 

Capital, Real 
ana Personal. 

Employees. 

Wages paid dur¬ 
ing the Vear. 

Value of Mate¬ 
rials. 

PRODUCTS. 

Value. 

Weight. 

Blast-furnaces, .... 

39 

$10,128,221 

2,513 

$902,929 

$4,166,622 

$6,816,241 

313,368 ] 

Rolling-mills, .... 

23 

6,086,000 

5.532 

I. 937.319 

5,286,659 

8,697,446 

163,538 

Bessemer and open-hearth steel, 

2 

2,250,000 

1,650 

692,218 

2,745,102 

4,802,036 

87,165 

Crucible and miscellaneous steel, 

3 

825,000 

255 

95,654 

232,425 

425,140 

2 , 5 H 

Forges and bloomaries, 

22 

2,254,000 

1,489 

47 D 33 I 

964,421 

1 , 478,356 

3 D 7 I 8 

Totals, - 

89 

$21,543,221 

11,444 

$ 4 , 099,451 

$13,395,229 

$22,219,219 

598,300 


The following table, furnished by the Census Bureau, gives statistics of interest 
and value with regard to important industries : 


Specified Manufactures. 


INDUSTRIES. 

Number of Establishments. 

Capital. 

Greatest number of hands 
employed at any one time 
during the year. 

Total amount 
paid in Wages 
during the 
Year. 

Materials. 

Products. 

• 

Agricultural implements,. 

265 

$9,580,009 

7,965 

$ 2 , 513,875 

$4,580,010 

$10,707,766 

Cotton goods,*. 

57 

12,616,018 

10,529 

2 , 315,635 

5,890,789 

10,287,115 

Lumber, sawed, - 

2,822 

13,230,924 

17,509 

2,162,972 

9,119,263 

14 , 356,910 

Paper, not specified. 

168 

6,859,565 

4 A 73 

1,215,080 

5 , 589,525 

8,680,279 

Woolen goods, - 

159 

8,266,878 

6,130 

1 , 774.143 

6,212,835 

9 , 874,973 

Carpets, - ... 

IO 

6,422,158 

5,602 

r. 952 , 39 1 

4 , 453,410 

8,419,254 

Felt goods, ------- 

4 

157,500 

195 

35,289 

155,893 

257,450 

Worsted goods, • 

6 

1,679,157 

1,707 

385,952 

1 , 348,376 

2,321,990 

Wool hats, - .. 

IO 

1,723,005 

2,794 

1,041,405 

2,308,221 

4,205,080 

Hosiery and knit goods, 

76 

5,594,876 

8,282 

2,128,588 

5,273,642 

10,332,305 


* The statistics of the manufacture of cotton goods includes mills which work raw cotton, waste or cotton yarn into hose, webbing, tapes, fancy 
fabrics or mixed goods or other fabrics which are not sold as specific manufactures either of cotton or wool. 


The transportation business of the State is of great magnitude. The con¬ 
struction of the canals, at the close of the fiscal year September 30, 1881, shows 
that they had cost $78,622,778.34. To this amount is to be added the sum of 
$46,708,266.39 paid in interest, making the total cost of the canals $125,331,044.73. 
The net profit of operating the canals is $87,012,577.77. The actual cost to the 
people, therefore, is $38,318,466.96. The debits and credits on account of various 
funds are not shown in this statement; but the actual cost to the people is shown 
by the amount of taxes paid into the treasury on account of the canals, which 
a gg re & ates sum $38,227,154.69. The revenues of the canals at the close of 
the fiscal year were $818,264.61; the expenses, $1,023,907.06, leaving a deficiency of 
$205,642.45. The financial results were the most unsatisfactory of any year since 






























































THE COMMONWEALTH. 


136 

the construction of the canals, and were consequent upon the war between the rival 
transportation routes from the west to the seaboard. 

There were in 1880 132 railroads in the State, with an aggregate length of line 
of 5,975.96 miles, and 4,306.69 miles in sidings, etc. I he total cost of roads and 
equipments was $572,786,895; the ¥ gross earnings, $72,134,581; working expenses, 
$44,178,082; net earnings, $27,956,499. Thirty-two of these roads reported neither 
earnings nor rentals received. Various lines are in process of construction, chief 
among which are the lines from Hoosac tunnel to Buffalo, and from New York to 
Albany on the west side of the Hudson river. 

The shipping of the State aggregates a tonnage of 1,150,222; number, 5,444. 
This includes sail and steam vessels, canal boats and barges. 

The total receipts of flour, corn meal (reduced to bushels), wheat, corn, oats, 
barley, rye, peas and malt, for the year 1881, by the various routes at New York 
were 119,735,784. The receipts were largely shipped abroad. 

The total exports from the port of New York for the fiscal year 1880-81 aggre¬ 
gated in value $407,181,024; the imports, $435,450,905. The total exports from the 
ports of Oswegatchie, Champlain, Buffalo Creek, Niagara, Oswego, Genesee, Cape 
Vincent, and Dunkirk, were $4,505,963; and the total imports were $18,518,214. 
The aggregate is $865,656,106, and the percentage of the aggregate for all the ports 
of the United States is 56.03. The total receipts at the port of New York during 
the fiscal year were $143,581,714.32. 

I he aggregate receipts from internal revenue, by the Federal Government, from 
the State of New York during the years 1863—1881 inclusive, were $527,330,833.15. 
The aggregate for the year 1881 was $127,851,634.66. This is the largest aggregate 
since the year 1871. 

The aggregate capital of National and State banks, trust companies and private 
bankers in 1881 was $161,779,243, and the aggregate amount of deposits was 
$54°>46 o,50o. I he total amount of loans and discounts reported by National and 
State banks and individual bankers to the authorities at Washington and Albany, 
respectively, was $408,454,750. Sixty National and State banks, and the Assistant 
Treasurer of the United States at New York, are associated in the New York 
Clearing House Association. The aggregate capital in 1881 was $61,162,700, and 
the exchanges amounted to $48,565,818,212. The total amount of exchanges since 
the organization of the association in 1853 is $584,450,115,759. These figures show 
the amount of business transacted in that commercial and manufacturing emporium. 

The amount of deposits in the savings banks of the State was $353,629,657, and 
the total number of depositors was 953,707. The total number of life insurance 
companies doing business in the State was 30; the number of policies, 608,681; 
their amount, $1,475,995,172; assets, $417,951,009.31; liabilities, except capital, 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


137 


$ 346 > 389 > 34 °-° 2 ; surplus as regards policy-holders, $71,561,669.29. The number of 
policies in force on citizens of the State of New York was 114,298; the amount 
was $328,849,243. 

Hie net assets of the fire and fire and marine insurance companies organized or 
doing business in this State was $157,004,966.99; cash income, $75,342,840.84; 
expenditures, $67,844,577.31 ; premiums, $67,788,161.54; losses paid, $39,329,169.85 ; 
risks in force, $7,579-676,750. The total amount of fire risks written during the 
year was $7,189,382,442 ; amount in force, $7,305,729,981 ; amount written in the 
State of New York, $2,564,296,831. 

The following statement shows the number of corporations organized under the 
laws of the State of New York, which reported to the Comptroller for the year 
ending November 1, 1881, under the requirements of chapter 361, Laws of 1881, 
with the amount of their capital: 


CORPORATIONS. 

Number of 
Companies. 

Paid up Capital. 

Bridge companies, . .. ------- 

23 

$ 1 , 597,873 OO 

Electric light companies, - - . ----- 

7 

1,675,300 OO 

Express companies,. -------- 

5 

420,000 OO 

Gas companies, - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 

rl 9 

36,147,640 OO 

Insurance companies, -------------- 

97 

24,000,000 OO 

Ice companies, - -- -- -- - -- -- -- - 

IO 

3,215,600 OO 

Mining companies, . ... 

18S 

30,101,873 OO 

Steam railroad companies,.-. 

140 

516,000,000 OO 

Horse railroad companies, - -- --.. 

Si 

25,000,000 OO 

Telegraph and telephone companies, - -- -- -- -- -- 

39 

114,218,486 OO 

Turnpike and plankroad companies, -.- - - - 

56 

1,006,830 OO 

Water-works companies, ------------- 

30 

2,339.792 00 

Miscellaneous companies, . ... 

130 

42,324,232 OO 



$798,047,626 OO 


No New York manufacturing companies report under the above law. The 

capital of mining companies is given at its appraised value, as made by the officers 
of the companies under the requirements of the above law. The three principal 
express companies of the State are not incorporated, and are not included in the 

above statement. 

The magnitude of the varied interests of the people of the State of New York 
can be approximately measured by the statistics which have been produced, and 

these statistics will give some conception of the greatness of the Commonwealth, 
although no mere array of figures can impress the reader with its vastness and 

grandeur. He only can comprehend their extent who has made a tour through the 
great manufacturing and commercial cities and has intelligently examined their 
various business establishments in detail, and who has traversed the interior from 
the Adirondacks to the fertile valleys of western New York. 

18 
























THE COMMONWEALTH. 


138 


The year 1883 will begin the second century since the independence of the 
United States was conceded by Great Britain, and the third century since a General 
Assembly was first instituted in the Colony of New York. The stubborn persistence 
of the colonists secured legislative supremacy in the administration of the public 
service, and the resolute action of the revolutionary fathers resulted in the establish¬ 
ment of a government by the People. The result has justified the experiment. The 
People are governed but little; and the world has learned that the moral and 
material welfare of the People are best conserved when interfered with the least, so 
Iona - as each individual and each interest is rendered secure in the common rights 
of all. 

Various methods of guaranteeing this protection have been sanctioned by organic 
and statutory laws. The successive systems which have been described gave way, 
one after the other, in order that the People might be the better enabled to reach 
and call to account those who were intrusted with the limited powers conferred upon 
the various branches and departments of government. In no government is intelli¬ 
gent supervision so wisely united with effective restraints as in the government of 
the State of New York. The People freely manage their own affairs, subject only 
to authorities which are powerless to interfere arbitrarily in the concerns of any, 
while able to fully maintain the common rights of all. The Government is limited 
to the ordinary duties of administration and the preservation of orderly freedom. 
New York is well called the Empire State, therefore, not only because of the vast¬ 
ness of its resources, but because it so conspicuously illustrates the imperial power 
of law-abiding liberty among the People. 














EXECUTIVE MANSION 




















EXECUTIVE MANSION, RECEPTION ROOM 













































THE 


EXECUTIVE. 


By THOMAS G. ALVORD. 

CHAPTER I. 

Duties and Powers of the Governor of the Colony. — Chief Executive and Chief 
Judge. — The Governor’s Council. — The Governor and Councils under the First 
State Constitution. — Increased Power under the Second Constitution. — Appoint¬ 
ments to Office. — Appointments by Governor and Senate Reduced under the 
Constitution of 1846. 


HE Director-General of the Province of New Netherland was appointed by 
the Dutch West India Company. The Director was the Chief Executive 
of the laws of the Netherlands in the Province, and the Chief Judge of 
their provisions; but he did not possess the law-making power, nor was he author¬ 
ized to impose taxes. These prerogatives of sovereignty Directors-General sought 
to usurp; but the Colonists stubbornly resisted them, and struggled determinedly to 
secure the local institutions and general rights conceded to belong to the People 
of the Netherlands. 

The Governor of the Province of New York was vested with supreme power by 
James, as Duke of York and subsequently as King of England. He was not only 
the Chief Executive of the Laws of England as extended over the Province, and 
the Chief Judge of their meaning, but he was clothed with power to enact additional 
laws to meet local exigencies, and even to levy taxes. This despotism, however, 

was of short duration. 

The English Revolution, which resulted in the accession of William and Mary 
to the throne, secured to the People of the Colony a more full recognition of 
their rights. The Legislature was organized, and new laws could not be passed 

nor taxes imposed without consent of the People, through their representatives in 

General Assembly convened. The Governor, however, continued to be, in effect, 

1 *39 1 



140 


THE EXECUTIVE. 


the Chief Judge of the Colony. The Directors-General of the Province of New 
Netherland and the Governors of the Colony of New York were assisted by a 
Council. The members of the Council, under the Dutch, did not really act as 
the advisers of the Director, but were rather his obsequious agents; and while 
under the English they possessed executive, legislative and judicial powers, and 
assumed more of the dignity of their position, they were yet little more than the 
assistants of the Governor. The members of the Council, in the first instance, 
were named in the instructions to the Governor, but they could be suspended by 
him for cause, in which case, or in case of vacancy, he could designate others in 
their stead, provided the number did not exceed seven., 

The Chief Executive of the Colony was entitled in the Royal instructions 
Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief in and over the Province of New York and 
Territories depending thereon in America. He was also Vice-Admiral of New York 
and Connecticut, and keeper of the Great Seal of the Province. His commission 
was under the Sign Manual and Great Seal of the Realm, and he held his office 

o 

during the pleasure of the Crown. With his commission, he received also instruc¬ 
tions explanatory of the patent, and the commission and instructions embodied the 
powers with which he was invested for the administration of the Government. He 
was empowered to collate to churches and ecclesiastical benefices, liberty of conscience 
having been allowed to all persons except Catholics ; to grant marriage licenses and 
probate of wills, and license school-masters and printers; call out the militia and 
appoint officers thereof; erect forts, cities, boroughs and towns, and establish fairs 
and markets; sign warrants for the issue and payment of public moneys, and, with 
the consent of the Council, grant patents for lands, ferries, ports, harbors and manors. 
Finally, he was instructed to give due encouragement to the Royal African Company 
of England, in order that the Province may have a constant and sufficient supply of 
merchantable negroes at moderate prices. The General Assembly, by naming officers 
in appropriation bills, substantially wrested the appointing power from the Governor. 

With reference to the Legislature, the Governor could summon, prorogue and 
dissolve the General Assembly, and with their consent make laws, which were to 
be transmitted within three months, for the royal approval or disallowance; but 
all bills affecting the prerogative or private property were to have the royal assent 
before they could become laws. In the enactment of all laws the Governor had 
a negative voice. 

The Governor, with the consent of the Council, could establish Courts of Justice 
and invest them with all reasonable and necessary powers, fees and privileges 
thereunto belonging, but he could not erect any court not before constituted, nor 
dissolve any court already established; also, with like consent, he appointed judges, 
justices of the peace, and other officers necessary for the administration of justice; 


THE EXECUTIVE. 


141 

could pardon all offenses, treason and willful murder excepted; and, in these cases, 
could grant reprieves until the King’s pleasure became known. 

I he Governor and Council constituted the Court for the Correction of Errors 
and Appeals, with powers analogous to those of the State Court of Final Resort 
previous to 1846. Appeals lay to this Court from any judgment exceeding in 
value ^100 sterling, which amount was increased in 1753 to ^300; if the amount 
exceeded ^500, an appeal was allowed to the King in Privy Council, provided the 
appeal was made within fourteen days after the decision, and the appellant gave 
bonds for the payment of the final costs and judgments. But in cases where the 
Episcopal Church was concerned, appeals were allowed from inferior courts to 
the Governor and Council, and from the latter to the King in Council, without 
limitation of any sum. 

The salary of the Governor, at the time of the Revolution, was ,£2,000 sterling, 
and £400 currency, additional, for fuel and candles. This allowance, however, was 
exclusive of fees, the amount of which, on land patents alone, after the close of 
the French war, must have been very large. 

New York became an independent State April 19, 1775, and the Presidents of 
the various Conventions, Congresses and Councils were the Chief Executives of the 
State. They possessed no powers, except such as were conferred by resolution. 
The framers of the first State Constitution did not realize that in securing- an 
elective Governor they had obtained an additional agent of the expressed will of 
the People, and one who could be directly controlled by them; and they therefore 
sought to diminish his powers in respect to legislation and appointments, and in 
other respects. 

The Governor was chosen triennially, a plurality being sufficient to elect; was 
General and Commander-in-Chief of all the militia, and Admiral of the navy; was 
to correspond with the Continental Congress, and other States; to transact all 
necessary business with the officers of government, civil and military; to take care 
that the laws were faithfully executed, to the best of his ability, and to expedite 
all such measures as might be resolved upon by the Legislature. A Council of 
Appointment, composed of one Senator from each district openly nominated and 
appointed each year by the Assembly, of which Council the Governor was a 
member and President, appointed all State officers except the Lieutenant-Governor, 
and all local officers. A Convention held in 1801 decided that the members of 
the Council of Appointment had concurrent power of nomination with the Governor. 

The judicial power was entirely taken away from the Governor. He could 
only grant reprieves and pardons in cases of persons convicted of crimes other 
than treason or murder; with respect to these latter offenses, he could suspend 
the execution of the sentence until reported to the Legislature at their subsequent 


142 


THE EXECUTIVE. 


meeting, when they were either to pardon, direct the execution of the criminal, or 
grant a further reprieve. 

It was the duty of the Governor to inform the Legislature, at every session, 
of the condition of the State, so far as respected his department; to recommend 
such matters to their consideration as appeared to him to concern its good govern¬ 
ment, welfare and prosperity; and he could convene them on extraordinary occasions. 
He could also prorogue the Legislature from time to time, provided such proro¬ 
gations did not exceed sixty days in any one year; but the power was exercised 
only upon one occasion — by Governor Tompkins, in March, 1812. The power of 
the Governor to veto legislation was taken away. At the same time, the neces¬ 
sity of providing a check upon legislation was recognized, and therefore a Council 
of Revision was instituted, of which the Governor was President. 

By the constitution of the Council of Appointment and the Council of Revision, 
two of the functions possessed by the Governor and Council under the Colonial 
Constitution were vested in two separate Councils, in both of which the Governor 
could be entirely neutralized. Under the Colonial Government the Governor was 
a distinct branch of the Legislative department, his assent being necessary to the 
enactment of all laws. The Legislature then consisted of the Governor, Council 
and Assembly; while under the State Constitution the only connection the Gov¬ 
ernor had with the law-making department was as a member of the Council of 
Revision, in which, as in the Council of Appointment, he could be overruled. The 
Convention of 1821 abolished these Councils, and vested in the Governor, in quali¬ 
fied form, the powers he possessed under the Colonial Constitution. He was given 
a limited negative upon all acts of the Legislature; two-thirds of all the members 
present in each House being necessary to pass a bill notwithstanding his objections. 

I he objection to the Council of Revision was that it assumed quasi-legislative 
functions, thus becoming a third branch of the Legislature, a result not intended 
by the Constitution. I he veto power, however, was regarded as a salutary check 
upon unwise legislation, and was retained. The Council of Appointment was 
abolished because it had assumed sovereign power over its appointees, some fifteen 
thousand in number, and had become very obnoxious. The Governor was therefore 
given the power, with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint all officers 
not elected by the Legislature. The principal State officers were appointed by 
the latter, on joint ballot. 

By the Constitution of 1821, the term of office of the Governor was changed 

o 

from three years to two years, and a plurality of votes was sufficient to elect. In 
case of a tie, the choice devolved on the Legislature, the election to be by joint 
ballot. No person was eligible to the office who was not a native citizen of the 
United States, a freeholder of the age of thirty years, and a resident of the State 


THE EXECUTIVE. 


i 43 

five years, unless absent from it on public business. The Constitution of 1846 
provided for the election of the principal State officers by the people, and greatly 
reduced the number of officers appointed by the Governor by and with the advice 
and consent of the Senate; but, in other respects, the powers and duties of the 
Governor remained the same until the adoption of the amendments to the Con¬ 
stitution in 1874. 


CHAPTER II. 

The Governor as President of the Council. — He is Instructed not to Meet with 
the Council in it's Legislative Capacity. — The Lieutenant-Governor. — The Office 
During the Colonial Period. — Increased Importance under the State Constitu¬ 
tion.— President of the Court of Errors. — Other Duties under the First 
Constitution.—Changes therein by the Second Constitution. — Present Powers 
and Duties. — A Commissioner of the Land Office, Member of the Canal Board, 
the New Capitol Commission, and other Boards. — Salary. 

The Governor sat with the Council for nearly half a century, voting whenever 
he pleased, and in case of a tie giving the casting vote as presiding officer. In 
1 733 Governor Cosby had grave differences with Chief Justice Morris and other 

leading men in the Colony, and suspended some of them from office. In order 

to justify his course, he transmitted certain newspapers to the Lords of Trade. In 
these papers it was intimated that the Governor had “ sometimes voted as a Coun¬ 
cillor in a legislative capacity.” The Lords of Trade thereupon submitted two 
questions to the law officers of the Crown. They desired to know, first, “whether, 

in any case, the Governor can sit and vote as a member of the Council.” They 

also inquired if the President of the Council is “ capable of acting and voting as 
a Councillor during the time he acts as Governor and represents the King; ” a 
duty which devolved upon him, when there was no Lieutenant-Governor present in 
the Colony, in the event of the absence or death of a Governor. Sir John Willes, 
Attorney-General, and Dudley Ryder, Solicitor-General, gave it as their opinion that 
“ it is inconsistent with the nature of this Government that the Governors should, 
in any case whatsoever, sit and vote as a member of the Council; and that, as 
the President of the Council, acting as Governor, has no greater power than is 
given to the Governor himself, he cannot act or vote as a Councillor during 
such time as he acts as Governor.” The Governor was thereupon notified that 
when the Council met “ as the third part of the Legislature ” he was “ neither to 




U4 


THE EXECUTIVE. 


sit nor vote with them; ” for, in the event of decision by his vote, he would in 
fact take away the privilege of the Council and vest it in himself. Henceforward, 
when acting in a legislative capacity, the Council no longer sat in Port George, 
but in a room in the City Hall, in which building the General Assembly also held 
its sessions. The Chief Justice was at first selected to preside as Speaker; but 
upon his representation that the business of the Supreme Court required all his 
time, the Council adopted a standing order, October 20, 1736, that the oldest 
Councillor present should at all times preside as Speaker; and this rule prevailed 
during- the existence of the Legislative Council. 

The office of Lieutenant-Governor during the Colonial period was nominally 
unimportant; but circumstances gave to it greater importance in the estimation of 
the People. In the event of the death of the Governor, his absence from the 
Province, resignation or recall, the Lieutenant-Governor administered the Govern¬ 
ment until the arrival of a Governor, duly commissioned. For a considerable period, 
however, there was no Lieutenant-Governor; and during such times the oldest 
Councillor resident within the Colony, as President of the Council, acted as Lieuten¬ 
ant-Governor. Most of the Lieutenant-Governors, when called upon to administer 
the office of Governor, discharged their duties in the interest of the People. The 
long and valuable services of James De Lancey, as Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court and Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony, acting as Governor in case of 
vacancy in that office, with the usually unfortunate administrations of the Governors 
of the Colony alike as Chief Executive and Chief Judge of the final Court of 
Appeals, accustomed the People to regard the office of Lieutenant-Governor with 
favor and that of Governor with disfavor. 

When the State Constitution of 1777 was framed this feeling still existed, and 
gave form to the organic law. The Lieutenant-Governor was not only required by 
it to administer the duties of the office of Governor in case of vacancy, but the 
judicial power was taken away from the Governor; and the Lieutenant-Governor, as 
President of the Court of Errors, became practically the Chief Judge of the State. 
Hie Court for the I rial of Impeachments and the Correction of Errors, as the 
Court of Pinal Resort was termed, consisted of the President of the Senate for the 
time being, and the Senators, Chancellor and Judges of the Supreme Court, or 
the major part of them. This Court was abolished by the Constitution of 1846, 
when the Executive, Judicial and Legislative Departments were finally separated and 
constituted independent branches of the State Government. 

The Colonial Council was the adviser of the Governor in the matter of appoint¬ 
ments to office. This duty, under the State Constitution, was devolved upon a 
Council of Appointment, whose members were selected from the Senate by the 
Assembly. The Senate, therefore, did not succeed the Council, absolutely. It 


THE EXECUTIVE. 


145 


shared the Judicial function with judicial officers, and only a portion of its members 
took part in the appointment of officers. The Senate, as such, was originally vested 
only with the legislative power of the old Council; the Lieutenant-Governor taking 
the place of the senior member of the Council as President of that body. After 
the Council of Revision was abolished by the Constitution of 1821, the Lieutenant- 
Governor, as President of the Court of Errors and President of the Senate when 
it met in an executive capacity to act upon the nominations of the Governor, held 
a position of increased dignity and responsibility. The power of the Lieutenant- 
Governor in the appointment of committees varied with the varying political relations 
between the Senate and its President. If in sympathy, the Lieutenant-Governor 
was intrusted with the appointment; if not, the Senate named the committees. The 
Lieutenant-Governor has always had a casting vote in case of a tie in the Senate. 

The Commissioners of the Land Office were a very important Board during the 
settlement of the Colony and State, and grave questions still come before them. 
The Commissioners consisted of the Governor and Council from 1664 until 1708, 
when a Board was organized consisting of the Governor, Collector, Secretary of the 
Province and Surveyor-General. The Board was changed in 1774 so as to consist 
of the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Surveyor-General of Lands for the northern 
district of America, Secretary of the Province, Surveyor-General and Receiver-Gen¬ 
eral, or any three of them. The Governor was omitted from the Board under the 
State Constitution. It now consists of the Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State, 
Comptroller, Treasurer, Attorney-General, State Engineer and Surveyor, and Speaker 
of the Assembly. The Lieutenant-Governor is President of the Board, and the 
Deputy Secretary of State is Clerk. The Commissioners of the Land Office are 
custodians of the old State Hall. 

The construction of the canals led to rhe clothing of the Lieutenant-Governor 
with additional duties, and he has from the beginning been an important officer in 
their management. The Commissioners of the Canal Fund were created in 1817, 
and he was made a member of the Board, and in 1826 he was made a member of 
the Canal Board, then organized. He is President of both Boards. 

The Lieutenant-Governor is, ex officio, a Regent of the University, trustee of 
the Idiot Asylum and of Union University, a member of the State Board of Equal¬ 
ization of Assessments and of the State Board of Charities, and a trustee of the 
Capitol and of the State Hall. Since 1875 he has been President of the Board of 
Commissioners of the New Capitol. Prior to the adoption of the amendments to 
the Constitution in 1874, the Lieutenant-Governor received a salary of six dollars 
per day for each day’s attendance in the performance of his duties, and mileage ; by 
those amendments, his salary was fixed at $5,000 per annum, without other compen¬ 
sation, fee or perquisite for any service he may be required to perform. 

19 


146 


THE EXECUTIVE. 


CHAPTER III. 

Executive Departments under Dutch and English Rule. — Continued under the First 
State Constitution. — Heads thereof Appointed by the Legislature under the 
Second Constitution. — Elected by the People under the Constitution of 
1846. — Boards of which they are Members. 

The Executive officers of the Government of New Netherland were the agents 
of the Director-General, and exercised little or no discretion in the manner in which 
they discharged their duties. Civil administration was organized under Peter Minuit, 
his predecessors in the office of Director-General being only military commanders. 
Minuit was assisted by two Executive officers or agents; an Opper-Koopman , who 
was the Secretary of the Province, Chief Commissary, Clerk of the Courts and 
Book-keeper, and was next in authority to the Director-General and Council; a 
Schout-Fiscal , who was the Collector of the Port, Attorney-General and High Sheriff, 
arresting and prosecuting all offenders against the laws, and collecting customs duties, 
quit-rents and other revenues. The Director and Council were the Commissioners 
of Indian Affairs. This simple organization answered the purposes of the public 
service until the administration of Director Kieft, when a Receiver-General was 
appointed, as the custodian of the public moneys, and a Surveyor-General, who was 
surveyor of lands and Surveyor and Searcher of the Port. Under Director Stuyve- 
sant, a Comptroller was appointed for the purpose of attending to the customs 
accounts. 

The population and business of the Province had so increased when the English 
came into possession of the Executive power, that it was necessary to provide for 
a division of duties among various agents, and this division was maintained through¬ 
out the Colonial period. The Secretary of the Colony was the head of the 
department of State, and was the Secretary of the Governor, the Council and the 
Courts. The Auditing department was under the general supervision of the Auditor- 
General of the Plantations, who was assisted by a Deputy Auditor-General for the 
Colony; the customs accounts being audited by the Comptroller of the Port. A 
Receiver-General was appointed, to have custody of the funds. An Attorney-Gen¬ 
eral was the head of the Law department. The Surveyor-General was the head 
of the Land department, and a Surveyor and Searcher of the Port attended to 
the customs. 

The General Assembly made two very important changes in the Colonial Con¬ 
stitution, each relating to the finances, one to the Auditing department and the 


THE EXECUTIVE. 


147 


other to the Treasury. Joint commissioners to examine accounts were appointed 
by the Council and Assembly in 1701 and 1702, and in some subsequent years; 
and, later, the General Assembly as a body were constituted Commissioners of 
Accounts by statute. The history of the Colony shows a continuous struggle, not 
only for the custody of the funds, but for the control of expenditures and the 
appointment of persons who should discharge the duties and receive the com¬ 
pensation provided for in appropriation acts. Early in the history of the Colony a. 
Treasurer was appointed by the General Assembly, who also named his successor 
when a vacancy occurred. 

The Executive department, as it existed by authority of the People, from the 
date of the independence of the State of New York, April 19, 1775, to the adoption 
of the Federal Constitution, was organized in substantially the same manner as 
under the Colonial period, except that most of the various agents were named by 
the Council of Appointment, although the Treasurer continued to be appointed 
by law, originating in the Assembly. The Secretary of State, Attorney-General 
and Surveyor-General were the heads, respectively, of the departments of State, 
Law and Land; but their duties were not defined in the earlier laws, for they 
had become well settled in practical administration. The Legislature provided for 
a Collector of Customs, until the customs department passed under the control of 
the Federal Government. Indian Commissioners were also appointed until the 
Federal Constitution went into effect. 

The Auditing department has undergone many changes. An Auditor-General 
was appointed by the Provincial Convention in 1776, who held office until 1782, 
when the Governor and Senate were authorized to appoint an Auditor for two 
years. This office was continued until 1797, when it was abolished. The office 
of Comptroller was then instituted, and after several extensions was permanently 
organized in 1812. The Comptroller was the auditor of all public accounts until 
after the adoption of the Constitution of 1846, when by various acts accounts 
payable from the Canal, Bank and School funds were directed to be audited, 
respectively, by the Auditor of the Canal Department, the Superintendent of the 
Banking Department and the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The Comptroller 
has long been much more than an auditing officer, in fact he has been the Minister 
of Finance of the Commonwealth, it being his duty not only to supervise the fiscal 
affairs of the State, but to make suggestions with regard to their management, the 
disposition of the funds intrusted to his care, and the general financial policy of 
the State. 

The Secretary of State, Comptroller, Attorney-General and Surveyor-General 
were appointed by the Council of Appointment under the first Constitution; and, 
with the Treasurer, were chosen by the Legislature under the Constitution of 1821. 


148 


THE EXECUTIVE. 


By the Constitution of 1846, these officers were made elective by the People; and 
the title of the office of Surveyor-General was changed to that of State Engineer 
and Surveyor. These officers, with the Lieutenant-Governor and Speaker of the 
Assembly, are the Commissioners of the Land Office. With the Lieutenant- 
Governor and Canal Commissioners they constituted the Canal Board, the powers 
of which varied from time to time. The amendments to the Constitution in 
1876 substituted the Superintendent of Public Works for the Canal Commis¬ 
sioners in the Board. The Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State, Comptroller, 
Treasurer and Attorney-General are Commissioners of the Canal Fund. The Gov¬ 
ernor, Lieutenant-Governor, Speaker, Secretary of State, Comptroller and Attorney- 
General are Trustees of the [Old] Capitol; and, with the State Engineer and 
Surveyor, Trustees of the New State Hall. The Lieutenant-Governor, Speaker, 
Secretary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer, Attorney-General, State Engineer and 
Surveyor, and State Assessors constitute a State Board of Equalization of Assess¬ 
ments. The elective State officers are also ex officio members of various Boards 
of which they do not constitute a controlling and responsible majority. 


CHAP 'I' E R I V. 

Executive Departments, the Heads of which are Elected by the Legislature or 
Appointed by the Governor and Senate. — Public Instruction. — Banks. — Insur¬ 
ance.— The State Prisons.—The Canal Appraisers. —Auditor of the Canal 
Department. — Superintendent of Public Works. — Other Branches of the Public 
Service. 

A stubborn contest for the control of the Executive department continued 
throughout the Colonial period. The Crown asserted its right, directly or through 
its representatives, the Governor and Council, to appoint all Executive officers and 
agents. The General Assembly, on the other hand, asserted the right to name, in 
the laws, many of the Executive agents, and especially commissioners charged with 
the expenditure of money. During the administration of Lieutenant-Governor 
De Lancey the General Assembly conceded that, theoretically, it had no right to 
“meddle with the Executive department, but asserted that it was necessary for 
it to do so, in order to insure good government; and it therefore assumed prac¬ 
tical control of all Executive agencies, except officers appointed directly by the 
Crown. 




THE EXECUTIVE. 


149 


The framers of the State Constitution found it impossible to adjust the relations 
of the Executive and Legislative departments, with respect to Executive adminis¬ 
tration, upon any theory as to the true principles of organization. The Governor 
and Senate, as the successors of the Governor and Council, were naturally the 
nominating and confirming power, respectively; but the People had come to regard 
the Assembly as the only reliable protector of their rights, and therefore it was 
provided that it should select from the Senators members of a Council of Appoint¬ 
ment, to act with the Governor. With respect to one officer, the Auditor or 
Comptroller, the appointment was committed to the Governor and Senate; but 
all the other appointed officers were selected by the Council of Appointment, 
except the State Treasurer, who was named by the Legislature in an act originating 
with the Assembly. Under the Constitution of 1821, the principal State officers 
were chosen by the Legislature. The representatives of the State in the Conti¬ 
nental Congress and in the Senate of the United States, and Regents of the 
University, were thus named from the beginning. All other officers were appointed 
by the Governor and Senate. 

In its essence, it will be observed, the controversy during the Colonial period 
was as to whether the Crown or the People were sovereign—if the former, then 
the Governor and Council could rightfully claim absolute control of the Executive 
department; but if the People were rightfully sovereign, then the demand that the 
Constitution of the Colony should enable them to enforce their sovereignty over 
all executive agents, was a reasonable one. When allegiance to the Crown was 
thrown off, however, it was not at once seen that the People could assert their 
sovereignty, directly, over Governor and Senate, whom tlfey were thenceforward to 
elect. Hence the designation, first of the Council of Appointment and then of 
the Legislature, as the appointing power. By the Constitution of 1846, the prin¬ 
cipal State officers were rendered elective, and other executive agents were left to 
be appointed as the Legislature might direct. The Governor, by and with the 
advice and consent of the Senate, has always appointed the officers of the Port 
of New York, the Superintendent of the Onondaga Salt Springs, Notaries Public, 
Commissioners of Deeds in other States and foreign countries, and other officers; 
and as new offices are created, the power of appointment is usually conferred upon 
the Governor by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Superin¬ 
tendent of Public Instruction is an exception to this custom. He is appointed by 
the Leffislature. 

o 

Commissioners of construction, charged with the expenditure of money, have 
almost uniformly been named in the acts of the Legislature authorizing such expen¬ 
diture. Commissioners to construct canals and prisons, to have charge of the 
erection of the New Capitol, and other Commissioners, may be referred to in this 


THE EXECUTIVE. 


150 

connection. Upon the completion of the work, the executive duties and powers of 
administration have been devolved upon officers variously appointed. Canal Com¬ 
missioners and Inspectors of State Prisons were elected by the People until the 
adoption of the recent amendments to the Constitution. The designation, by the 
Legislature of 187s, of the Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State and Auditor of 
the Canal Department, as Commissioners for the construction of the New Capitol, 
was a departure from the system of construction by commissioners appointed by the 
Legislature. 

Canal Appraisers, to appraise damages to private citizens caused by the con¬ 
struction of the canals, were appointed by the Governor and Senate prior to the 
Constitution of 1846, and have continued to be thus designated to the present time. 
An Auditor of the Canal Department was authorized by an act passed in 1848. The 
charitable institutions of the State are conducted by trustees or managers appointed 
by the Governor and Senate, and are under the general supervision of a State Board 
of Charities appointed in like manner. A Board of State Assessors, Commissioners 
of the State Survey, Commissioners of Fisheries, a State Board of Health, a Com¬ 
missioner in Lunacy, Trustees of the State Soldiers and Sailors’ Home, and other 
officers, are likewise named in the same manner. The State has also found it 
necessary to assume general supervision of banking and insurance in order to protect 
the interests of depositors and policy-holders, and to guard against any violation of 
public rights. These various departments, commissions and boards are subject to the 
direction of the Legislature, under the Constitution, and to the supervision of the 
Governor. The success of this method of organizing and directing bureaus of 
administration led to its adoption for the government of the canals and prisons, as 
directed by the amendments to the Constitution approved by the People in 1876. 
The theory of the organic law, therefore, is, that it is best to keep the Executive 
and Legislative departments distinct; the former, with its separate organization, how¬ 
ever, being subject to the direction of the Legislature, in relation to all matters not 
provided for in the Constitution. 


THE EXECUTIVE. 


151 


CHAPTER V. 

Recent Amendments to the Constitution. — Powers and Responsibility of the Gov¬ 
ernor Increased. — Supervision of the Executive Departments. — Enforcement of 
the Laws. — His Power to Veto Appropriations and Laws. — The Office of Private 
Secretary. — Executive Chamber. — Residence of the Governor.— Chief Execu¬ 
tives of the Colony and State. 

1 he great interests of the State are, the canals, schools, charities and prisons. 
The canals have been the source of much of its material wealth, the schools lay the 
foundations of its intellectual power, the charities illustrate its humanity, and the 
prisons provide for the care of its criminals. To these must be added, as among 
the interests of the public supervised by the State, the banks, which represent 
business capital, and insurance, which provides an even distribution of losses by fire 
and storm, or furnishes a safe investment which shall be available to the investor in 
later years, or to his family in case of his death. By our organic and statutory 
laws these interests, with the single exception of the schools, are committed to the 
supervision of officers appointed by the Governor, by and with the advice and 
consent of the Senate. While it is the policy of the State to interfere as little as 
possible with the business affairs of citizens, the Legislature has found it necessary 
to provide for intelligent oversight to some extent. There is no uniformity, 
however, in the system of organization. Some of the departments are administered 
by single heads, while others are conducted under the supervision of boards. To 
the Governor is intrusted the duty of securing a just and faithful administration of 
the laws for the regulation of these departments. 

The organic law now combines the excellencies of the two principles contended 
for, as between the Executive and Legislative departments of the government, during 
the Colonial period. The Governor is actually the head of Executive administra¬ 
tion ; but this administration must proceed as directed by the representatives of the 
will of the People, and cannot be organized against the advice of their representa¬ 
tives in the Senate. The Legislature, on the other hand, is subject to the check, 
but not to the dictation, of the Governor, whose power to veto measures and items 
in appropriation bills is sufficient to enable him to protect the interests of the 
People, if he believes that they would be injuriously affected by any statute 
presented for his approval. 

The Secretary of the Province was the Secretary of the Governor, the Council 
and the Courts during the Colonial period. This simple system was rendered 


152 


THE EXECUTIVE. 


impossible under the State Government, by the increase of clerical labor. The 
Senate and the Courts were allowed Clerks, and the duties of the Secretary of State 
and the character of the office rendered it impossible for him to act as Secretary of 
the Governor. The early Governors, therefore, appointed Private Secretaries. The 
first allusion to the office is contained in an act passed in 1793, and it is also 
alluded to in acts passed in 1801 and in 1813. It was not until the enactment of 

the Revised Laws, December 3, 1827, that the Governor was explicitly authorized to 

appoint a Private Secretary; and then the act was not to take effect until January 

1, 1830. By the provisions of an act passed in 1858, the Executive chamber was 

made an office of record. 

The Constitution was amended in 1874 so as to direct that there should be 
provided, for the use of the Governor, a suitable and furnished Executive residence. 
In compliance with this direction, a private residence, No. 138 Eagle street, was 
leased and occupied as an Executive residence during Governor Tilden’s term. This 
property was purchased by the State in 1877, in pursuance of a provision in the act 
of that year making appropriations for the support of the government,* by which the 
sum of $50,000 was appropriated for the purchase of an Executive mansion, and the 
Governor, Speaker of the Assembly, and President pro tempore of the Senate were 
appointed a commission to make such purchase. The commission consisted of 
Governor Robinson, Speaker Sloan, and President pro tempore Robertson. 


DIRECTORS- 

-GENERAL 

OF THE PROVINCE. 


ADRIAEN JORIS, 

1623. 

WOUTER VAN TWILLER, 

i6 33 -S 8 - 

CORNELIS JACOBSEN MAY, 

1624. 

WILLIAM KEIFT, 

1638-47. 

WILLIAM VERHULST, 

1625. 

PETER STUYVESANT. 

1647-64. 

PETER MINUIT, 

1626-32. 

ANTHONY COLVE, 

ffi 73 - 74 . 

GOVERNORS OF 

THE COLONY. 


RICHARD NICOLLS, 

1664-67. 

HENRY SLOUGHTER, 

1691. 

FRANCIS LOVELACE, 

1667-73. 

RICHARD INGOLDESBY, 

1691-92. 

EDMUND ANDROS, 

1674-77. 

BENJAMIN FLETCHER, 

1692-98. 

ANTHONY BROCKHOLLES, 

16-7-78. 

RICHARD COOTE, Earl of 

BEL- 

EDMUND ANDROS, 

1678-81. 

LOMONT, 

1698-99. 

ANTHONY BROCKHOLLES, 

1681-82. 

JOHN NANFAN, 

1699-1700. 

THOMAS DONGAN, 

1682-88. 

RICHARD COOTE, Earl of 

BEL- 

EDMUND ANDROS, 

1688. 

LOMONT, 

1700-01. 

FRANCIS NICHOLSON, 

1688-89. 

WILLIAM SMITH, 

1701. 

JACOB LEISLER, 

1689-91. 

JOHN NANFAN, 

1701-02. 


* Laws of 1S77, chapter 128, passed April 14, 1S77. 





THE EXECUTIVE. 


153 


EDWARD HYDE, Viscount Corn- 


BURY, 

1702-08. 

JOHN, Lord Lovelace, 

1708-09, 

PETER SCHUYLER, 

1709. 

RICHARD INGOLDESBY, 

1709. 

PETER SCHUYLER, 

1709. 

RICHARD INGOLDESBY, 

1709. 

GERARDUS BEECKMAN, 

1710. 

ROBERT HUNTER, 

1710-19. 

PETER SCHUYLER, 

1719-20. 

WILLIAM BURNET, 

1720-28. 

JOHN MONTGOMERIE, 

1728-31. 

RIP VAN DAM, 

1731-32. 

WILLIAM CROSBY, 

1732-36. 

GEORGE CLARKE, * 

I 736 - 43 - 


CADWALLADER 


PRESIDENTS OF 

PHILIP LIVINGSTON, 1775. 

PETER VAN BRUGH LIVINGSTON, 1775. 
NATHANIEL WOODHULL, 1775. 

ABRAHAM YATES, Jr., 1775. 

JOHN HARING, 1775. 

NATHANIEL WOODHULL, 1776. 


GOVERNORS 

GEORGE CLINTON, 

1777-95 

JOHN JAY, 

UQS-^oi 

GEORGE CLINTON, 

1801-04 

MORGAN LEWIS, 

1804-07 

DANIEL D. TOMPKINS, 

1807-17 

JOHN TAYLER, 

1817 

De WITT CLINTON, 

1817-22 

JOSEPH C. YATES, 

1822-24 

De WITT CLINTON, 

1824-28 

NATHANIEL PITCHER, 

1828 

MARTIN VAN BUREN, 

1828-29 

ENOS T. THROOP, 

1829-32 

WILLIAM L. MARCY, 

1832-38 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, 

1838-42 

WILLIAM C. BOUCK, 

1842-44 


GEORGE CLINTON, 1743-53 

DANVERS OSBORNE, 1753 

JAMES De LANCEY, 1753-55 

CHARLES HARDY, 1755-57 

JAMES De LANCEY, 1757-60 

CADWALLADER COLDEN, 1760-61 

ROBERT MONCKTON, 1761 

CADWALLADER COLDEN, 1761-62 

ROBERT MONCKTON, 1762-63 

CADWALLADER COLDEN, 1763-65 

HENRY MOORE, 1765-69 

CADWALLADER COLDEN, 1769-70 

JOHN MURRAY, Earl of Dun- 

more, 1770-71 

WILLIAM TRYON, 1771-74 

COLDEN, 1774-75. 


THE CONGRESSES. 

JOHN HARING, 1776. 

ABRAHAM YATES, Jr., 1776. 

PETER R. LIVINGSTON, 1776. 

ABRAHAM TEN BROECK, 1777. 

LEONARD GANSEVOORT, 1777. 

PIERRE VAN CORTLANDT, 1777. 

THE STATE. 

SILAS WRIGHT, Jr., 1844-46 

JOHN YOUNG, 1847-48 

HAMILTON FISH, 1849-50 

WASHINGTON HUNT, '1851-52 

HORATIO SEYMOUR, 1853-54 

MYRON H. CLARK, 1855-56 

JOHN A. KING, 1857-58 

EDWIN D. MORGAN, 1859-62 

HORATIO SEYMOUR, 1863-64 

REUBEN E. FENTON, 1865-68 

JOHN T. HOFFMAN, 1869-72 

JOHN A. DIX, 1873-74 

SAMUEL J. TILDEN, 1875-76 

LUCIUS ROBINSON, 1877-79 

ALONZO B. CORNELL, 1880-82 


20 






154 


THE EXECUTIVE. 


LIEUTENANT-GOVERNORS. 


PIERRE VAN CORTLAND, 1777-95 

STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER, 1795-1801 
JEREMIAH VAN RENSSELAER, 1801-10 
JOHN BROOME, 1810 

De WITT CLINTON, 1811-13 

JOHN TAYLER, 1813-22 

ERASTUS ROOT, 1822-24 

JAMES TALLMADGE, 1825-26 

NATHANIEL PITCHER, 1827-28 

ENOS T. THROOP, 1829 

EDWARD P. LIVINGSTON, 1831-32 

JOHN TRACY, 1832-38 

LUTHER BRADISH, 1839-42 

DANIEL S. DICKINSON, 1843-44 


ADDISON GARDINER, 

1844-47. 

HAMILTON FISH, 

1847-48. 

GEORGE W. PATTERSON, 

1849-50. 

SANFORD E. CHURCH, 

1851-54. 

HENRY J. RAYMOND, 

1855-56. 

HENRY R. SELDEN, 

1857-58. 

ROBERT CAMPBELL, 

1859-62. 

DAVID R. FLOYD JONES, 

1863-64. 

THOMAS G. ALVORD, 

1865-66. 

STEWART L. WOODFORD, 

1867-68. 

ALLEN C. BEACH, 

1869-72. 

JOHN C. ROBINSON, 

I 873 - 74 - 

WILLIAM DORSHEIMER, 

1875-79. 

GEORGE G. HOSKINS, 

1880-82. 




EXECUTIVE CHAMBER. 


























































7 

/ 











ALONZO B. CORNELL, 


GOVERNOR. 

A LONZO B. CORNELL was born at Ithaca, Tompkins county, New York, 
January 22, 1832, and was therefore forty-seven years of age when elected 
Governor of the State. He is the eldest son of the late Ezra Cornell, who founded 
the University bearing his name, which, though one of the youngest, already occupies 
a place among the most important and celebrated institutions of learning in the 
country. It is a worthy and conspicuous monument to the great public spirit and 
philanthropy of its founder, a credit to the State and an honor to the Nation. 

Mr. Cornell’s ancestors, both paternal and maternal, were New Englanders. His 
father’s parents were Quakers, and continued steadfast and consistent in their faith 
through long and useful lives. His mother was a daughter of Benjamin and Mary 
Wood, respected and honored residents, for many years, of Dryden, Tompkins 
county. His father, Ezra Cornell, was associated with Professor Morse, in 1843, i n 
the construction of the first line of telegraph established in the United States, 
between Washington and Baltimore ; and, success being assured by this achievement, 
he thereafter devoted himself with unabated zeal to the development of the telegraph 
enterprise. He was one of the founders, and for twenty years a Director, of the 
Western Union Telegraph Company. As the result of persevering endeavor and 
the successful management of telegraph investments, he accumulated a well-earned 
fortune, a very large share of which was bestowed on the University, in the interest 
of education on the broadest plan. 

While the father was battling with the difficulties and mastering the obstacles 
that beset his course in founding a great telegraph system, the son was fitting him¬ 
self at the Ithaca Academy for future responsibilities and usefulness. He became 
thoroughly imbued with the spirit which animated his father, though it required 
great courage and energy to make headway against the doubts and prejudices which 
always beset new enterprises. The telegraph soon became more attractive than the 
school, and, having acquired great proficiency as an operator, he was made assistant 

[155] 



*5 6 


ALONZO B. CORNELL. 


in charge of the Troy office in December, 1847, at the a & e fifteen years. The 
year following he opened the new office at Montreal, Canada, where he remained 
as Manager until called to the service of the Erie and Michigan Telegraph Company, 
first at Buffalo, and afterward at Cleveland, Ohio, at which place, owing to the con¬ 
centration there of numerous lines, the most important telegraph office in the country 
was then located. Here he remained as Manager three years, during which time 
he won the reputation of being one of the most accomplished operators in the 
service. In 1851 he returned to Ithaca, and accepted a position as an officer of 
the Tompkins County Bank, which he occupied until 1855, when he was induced to 
return to the telegraph service as Manager of the principal office in the city of 
New York. Telegraphy was no longer an experiment. It had become to commerce 
and to almost every vocation of life a necessary and indispensable means of commu¬ 
nication, and had called into action the best tact and business talent of the country. 
New York city was now the most important point, and here was required the 
exercise of the most skillful direction. In 1859, after four years of arduous work, 
he again returned to Ithaca, and soon thereafter succeeded to the proprietorship of 
a line of steamboats on Cayuga lake, which proved a successful undertaking; but 
it was .brought to a close during the second year by Mr. Cornell’s acceptance from 
the former proprietor of an offer considerably in advance of the previous purchase- 
price. When the First National Bank of Ithaca was organized, Mr. Cornell was 
by common agreement chosen Cashier. He was subsequently made Vice-President, 
and during the five years of these official relations the institution was strong and 
prosperous. He also attested his qualifications for business as Director of the 
Western Union Telegraph Company, of the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company, 
and of the American District Telegraph Company, and also as a Trustee of the 
Cornell Library and the Cornell University. 

Mr. Cornell took an active part in the organization of the Republican party, of 
the principles of which he was to become a prominent exponent and an efficient 
promoter. In 1858 he was elected Chairman of the Republican Central Committee 
of Tompkins county; and such were the devotion, foresight and skill displayed by 
him in the management of party affairs that he was continued in that position each 
year, successively, until 1866, when he was called to a more important post in the 
same line of active duty. He was Supervisor of the town of Ithaca in 1864 and 
again in 1865, and during his term of service rendered prompt and conspicuous 
assistance in filling the quota of Tompkins county, in response to the calls of 
President Lincoln for volunteers to aid in the vindication of the just authority of 
the Federal Government, and to suppress the rebellion against it. Mr. Cornell’s 
efficiency as an organizer, and his earnest Republicanism, led to his appointment, by 
the State Convention of 1866, as a member of the Republican State Committee; to 


ALONZO B. CORNELL. 


157 


his reappointment in 1867; to his designation by the Legislature, in an act passed 
May 19, 1868, as one of the New Capitol Commissioners, which post he held until 
1871; and to his nomination for the office of Lieutenant-Governor, with great 

o 

unanimity, by the Republican State Convention in 1868, the late Hon. John A. 
Griswold of Troy being the nominee for Governor. In his letter accepting the 
nomination for Lieutenant-Governor, Mr. Cornell exhibited a clear perception of the 
tendencies of the times toward prodigality and wastefulness, especially with refer¬ 
ence to the public works of the State; and he thus anticipated by some years the 
stirring issues that arose when those tendencies culminated in reckless extravagance 
in expenditure. The vote given for Mr. Cornell for Lieutenant-Governor was 
411,670, which considerably exceeded that cast for his associates on the ticket, and 
was the largest vote which, up to that time, had been cast for any State officer. 

The canvass of 1868 was very hotly contested. Great zeal and enthusiasm were 
displayed by the Republicans ; but the large majorities recorded in the rural counties 
for their candidates were swept away in the city of New York, and their opponents 

received the certificates of election, notwithstanding the general belief that Griswold 

# 

and Cornell were honestly entitled to the offices for which they had been placed in 
nomination. This conviction was so confirmed by subsequent investigations as to 
lead General Grant, on his accession to the Presidency the following year, to tender 
Mr. Cornell the appointment as Surveyor of Customs of the Port of New York, in 
evidence of his sense of the wrong done the Republican nominees, as well as of his 
appreciation of the political services and personal fitness of Mr. Cornell for the 
positio.fi. Surveyor Cornell’s administration was marked by diligent and efficient 
application to the duties of the office, and gave full satisfaction to the Adminis¬ 
tration and the business public. 

In July, 1870, President Grant appointed Mr. Cornell Assistant Treasurer of the 
United States at New York, but the honor was declined. The same year a wider 
sphere of political activity and usefulness, with increased responsibilities, was extended 
to Mr. Cornell in his selection as Chairman of the Republican State Committee. 
He devoted himself assiduously to the canvass that year, and gave careful attention 
to the practical workings of the organization in the city of New York, where the 
Republican party had been buried under heavy adverse majorities for several years. 
As the result of his observation and experience, he came to the conclusion that 
the Republicans could never again be successful unless a complete and thorough 
reorganization was effected in that city; and he therefore recommended to the State 
Committee that it provide for such reorganization. As the State Convention had 
not expressly conferred upon the Committee the power to adopt so radical a course, 
no little courage was needed to undertake and pursue it. A special committee 
having reported in favor of the Chairman’s views, the State Committee ordered a 


158 


ALONZO B. CORNELL. 


complete reorganization of the Republican General Committee and District Asso¬ 
ciations of the city of New York. The old organization, however, strenuously 
contested every step from the beginning. Horace Greeley was induced to accept 
the chairmanship of the existing General Committee, and lend the aid of his great 
name and the influence of the Tribune to defeat the movement. Mr. Cornell was 
bitterly assailed, and every possible means were employed to thwart his purpose. 
The contest was continued from November, 1870, until the assembling of the 
State Convention in September, following. That Convention was undoubtedly the 
most exciting one ever held in the State, except those Conventions which resulted 
in the actual dismemberment of parties; and its action aroused the most intense 
feeling. As Chairman of the State Committee, it became the duty of Mr. Cornell 
to call the Convention to order and conduct its proceedings until a temporary 
presiding officer was chosen. Never, perhaps, did a man in like situation have 
devolved upon him a more trying and difficult task; and only by the exercise 
of inflexible courage, resolute firmness and a prudent demeanor in the presence of 
angry contestants, was he enabled to direct the Convention to a peaceful and suc¬ 
cessful organization. The issue was distinctly drawn in the Convention between 
those who sustained the action of the State Committee with reference to the city 
of New York, and those who were opposed to it; and the State Convention 
ratified and approved the reorganization of the party in that city. Mr. Cornell was 
retained as Chairman of the State Committee, and the Republicans carried the State 
in 1871 and 1872 by unusual majorities; and as the effect of these signal victories 
he took high position as a leader of the party. For the five years preceding the 
reorganization of the Republican party in New York—-that is, from 1866 to 1870, 
inclusive — the average Democratic majority in that city was 52,450, while for the 
five years ending 1875, the average majority for the Democratic ticket was but 
3 1 > 7 °°- 

Mr. Cornell held the office of Surveyor of the Port of New York until 1872, 
when he was elected Member of Assembly for the Eleventh District of the county 
of New York. It was his first term of service in the Legislature, and there were 
several experienced parliamentarians among the Republican members of the Assem¬ 
bly ; yet such was his personal prominence, and such the paramount importance of 
the successes achieved under his leadership, that he was nominated for Speaker by 
acclamation in the Republican caucus. He was elected and entered upon this most 
difficult and trying position without experience, yet he so discharged the onerous 
duties of the Speakership as to win distinction as a successful presiding officer, ready 
in resource, prompt in correct decision, impartial in rulings on all questions affecting 
the rights of members, the methods of legislation and the maintenance of order; 
and exerted a salutary influence in securing beneficial laws. 


ALONZO B. CORNELL. 


i59 


The following year Mr. Cornell declined a re-election to the Assembly, to 
accept the position of Vice-President of the Western Union Telegraph Company 
to which he had devoted long service, and of which he had been for several years 
a Director. He also declined, in 1874, to retain the Chairmanship of the Republican 
State Committee, on account of personal engagements that could not be relinquished. 
In 1875 he was appointed Acting President of the Western Union Telegraph Com¬ 
pany, during the absence of President Orton in Europe, and discharged the duties 
of the position with especial acceptance. The same year he was again chosen 
Chairman of the Republican State Committee; and continued to hold the position 
until he was nominated for Governor, except in 1877, when he declined re-election. 

In March, 1876, Mr. Cornell was chosen by the Republican State Convention a 
Delegate-at-large to the National Convention to be held at Cincinnati in June of 
that year He went to the Convention the recognized head of the party in his 
State; and at the head-quarters of the New York delegation his presence and 

influence were potent in the direction both of details and general affairs. When it 
became apparent in the Convention that Mr. Conkling, who had been presented for 
the Presidency by the New York delegation, could not be nominated, though strenu¬ 
ous but ineffectual effort had been made to accomplish that end, it was largely 
through Mr. Cornell’s influence that the delegation was transferred in almost solid 
rank to the support of Governor Hayes of Ohio, whose nomination, owing to this 
powerful accession, immediately followed. When the Convention proceeded to choose 
the Republican National Committee, the delegates from New York named Mr. Cornell 
as the jnember from their State, in which position, and as Chairman of the Repub¬ 
lican State Committee, he gave his undivided time and all his energies to the 

campaign of 1876. That the electoral vote of New York in that year was not 
secured by the Republican party was owing to no lack of effort; the elements 

that prevailed could not be offset by zeal and management. 

In January following this contest President Grant appointed Mr. Cornell Naval 
Officer of Customs at the Port of New York, and on February 1, 1877, he entered 
on the duties of that office. Seven months after he took the office, on September 
5, 1877, Mr. Cornell was informed by the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury that 
he must resign his membership of the National and State Committees as a condition 
of retaining his commission as Naval Officer; but, with prompt and respectful answer, 
he declined to accede to the mandate of the Administration, regarding the demand 
inconsonant with reason, and the terms imposed an infringement on the rights of 

a citizen. The refusal was quickly followed by a request from the Secretary of the 
Treasury for his resignation ; but Mr. Cornell replied in a frank and dignified letter 
to President Hayes, as the responsible head of the Administration, in which the 
issue was plainly but courteously stated, and the responsibility definitely presented 


i6o 


ALONZO B. CORNELL. 


His successor was nominated shortly afterward, but the Senate refused to confirm 
him. Mr. Cornell therefore remained in office until the Senate adjourned, when 
both he and Collector Arthur were suspended ; and subsequently their successors 
were confirmed. 

The controversy over these changes attracted unusual attention and excited a 
good deal of interest throughout the country. The discussion increased as the time 
for the meeting of the Republican State Convention in 1879 drew near. Three 
years before, the name of Mr. Cornell was presented for nomination for the office 
of Governor, but was withdrawn by him in a magnanimous and conciliatory letter. 
It was understood that the nomination was now to be pressed; and the prospect 
that this would be the case led to bitter personal attacks, in which he was greatly 
misrepresented. Notwithstanding this, the opposition to him in the Convention, 
which met at Saratoga Springs on the 3d of September, did not assume the force 
and character of the opposition three years before. The friends of the several can¬ 
didates pressed their canvass with ardor, but on the first ballot the name of Mr. 
Cornell led all the rest by a clear majority of the entire Convention, whereupon 
his nomination was made unanimous. The character of the criticisms upon him 
had been such that his letter of acceptance was awaited with unusual interest, and 
when made public was received with popular favor. So great, indeed, was the 
demand for it, that it was used with unprecedented force and effect by the Repub¬ 
lican State Committee as a campaign document; three separate editions being 
exhausted at an early day. While the attacks upon him continued with unabated 
vehemence, they were overborne by appeals to the reason and intelligence of men, 
and he was elected by a plurality of forty thousand over his leading competitor, 
receiving a vote exceeding that hitherto cast for any candidate in other than a 
Presidential year. The following year General Arthur was nominated for Vice- 
President of the United States, and was also elected. 

In his administration of the office of Governor, Mr. Cornell has continued to 
evince the discriminating judgment, the firm devotion to right principles, and the 
unbending integrity which have ever characterized him; he has adhered to and 
successfully advanced the wise public policies inaugurated under his predecessors, 
and has initiated new and important reforms in the conduct of the public service. 

Governor Cornell addressed himself with promptness and diligence to the wise 
settlement of certain practical questions which were attracting general attention at 
the time of his inauguration. The most important of these related to the equitable 
adjustment of the burdens of taxation, the expenditure of the public funds, the 
management of corporations, and the administration of public trusts. In co-opera¬ 
tion with a commission recommended by the Governor, the Legislature was enabled 
to enact laws which have afforded a considerable measure of relief to real estate, 


ALONZO B. CORNELL. 


161 


removed many unjust discriminations, and placed a portion of the obligations for 
the support of government upon corporations deriving their franchises from the 
State; and from this source it is anticipated that nearly one-third of the State 
tax will eventually be derived. By his prudent advocacy of a remedial policy, the 
subject of railroad management has been committed to the supervision of a 
commission. As the result of his intelligent oversight, the State prisons have been 
so conducted as to place them upon a self-supporting basis, and the public works 
have been managed with more efficiency and greater economy. In the charities of 
the State, for the care and maintenance of the unfortunate classes, there have been 
increased interest and vigilance at less relative expense; more helpful means have 
been employed; more comfort and protection secured, and larger charity dispensed. 
The cause of education has received a healthful impetus by the wider introduction 
of the influence of women in the management of schools as trustees as well as 
teachers. The attention of the local authorities of the city of New York has been 
called to the open and flagrant violation of the laws against lotteries, the Legisla¬ 
ture has been urged to take action, and the proper officers have been required by 

proclamation to ^ prosecute and punish every person engaged therein. Salutary 
measures have been adopted to preserve the purity of elections, protect the rights 

of voters, and regulate primary meetings in the interest of electors. 

Besides exerting his influence so as to secure the adoption of these, with 

many other beneficent reforms, Governor Cornell has also rendered great service 
to the State by his fearless and intelligent exercise of the veto power; so freely 
has he^ used the restraining power wisely conferred upon the Governor by the 
Constitution that he has been termed, although in no offensive sense, “the Veto 

Governor.” In no instance has a measure returned by him to the Legislature 

been passed notwithstanding his objections thereto. Indeed, it has been so evident 
to every one that he has carefully scrutinized legislation with conscientious and 
enlightened impartiality, and his reasons for his action have been so clearly and 

strongly stated, that his most sweeping vetoes have been almost, if not quite, 

universally approved. The declaration in his letter of acceptance, that the same 
rule of honest dealing required in private transactions would also be required in 

public stations, has been strictly maintained. No appropriation not warranted by 

the proper needs of government, nor sustained by the principle of just compensation, 
has been allowed or expended ; and he has not been swerved from a direct course 
in regard thereto by any considerations of personal friendship, partisan favoritism, or 
political advantage. The result of the scrupulous fulfillment of this promise is, that 
at the close of Governor Cornell’s term the treasury contains an unexampled surplus. 
In the first year of his term $1,000,000, in round numbers, out of a total of 

$1,700,000, were stricken from the supply bill alone; the second year, $100,000 out 


21 


162 


ALONZO B. CORNELL. 


of a total of $750,000; the third year, $327,000 out of a total of $760,000. The 
supply bill has thus been restored to its original design, as a measure providing 
means for defraying actual deficiencies in appropriations, rather than a bill imposing 
new and doubtful claims upon the State. The following are the exact figures 
relative to the supply bills for the three years of his administration: 


YEARS. 

Total Amount. 

Amount Vetoed. 

Amount Approved. 

1880, . . 

# 1 . 575,273 53 

$948,036 58 

$627,237 OO 

1881, .... . 

745,547 24 

108,172 94 

637.374 30 

1882,. 

760,719 84 

326,S63 84 

433,856 OO 

Total, .... . 

$3,081,540 66 

$ 1 , 383,073 3 t> 

$1,698,467 30 


Other appropriation bills have been treated with like rigor. 

The volumes of laws enacted during the administration of Governor Cornell 
do not furnish all the evidences of the labor and pains expended upon legislation. 
Reference must also be had to the numerous bills that have been vetoed and 
otherwise rejected to form a correct estimate of the work done. The following 
table gives a clear exhibit of the work in these respects: 



1880. 

1881. 

1882. 

Total. 

Bills received, .... 








825 

959 

651 

2,435 

Bills returned for amendment, 

- 


- 

- 

- 

. 

. 

11 2 

134 

72 

318 

Bills vetoed, .... 








20 

85 

36 

141 

Bills rejected at close of session, 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

* 

95 

32 

133 

260 

Laws enacted, .... 








59 8 

708 

410 

1.716 


During the session of the Legislature of 1880, two bills of a general nature 
pertaining to the public revenues and the subject of assessment and taxation were 
submitted for Executive approval. One of these proposed, in effect, to exempt from 
taxation street railroads and other corporations occupying public streets; and the 
other was designed to impose restrictions, amounting practically to a prohibition, 
on the introduction of foreign capital in commercial transactions within the State. 
In vetoing these bills, the Governor evinced a firm purpose, in the one instance, to 
aid in maintaining the commercial supremacy of the State, and in the other to 
extend the sources of revenue from taxation by holding corporations enjoying excep¬ 
tional privileges and franchises to the performance of a just obligation, thereby 
affording relief to the over-burdened real estate of the Commonwealth. 

The need of judicious restraint upon the power of legislation was well demon¬ 
strated during the session of 1881, when eighty-five bills were returned by Governor 
Cornell with his objections. A variety of subjects were embraced in these meas¬ 
ures, involving questions of constitutional rights, legal principles, and the policy of 
government, general and municipal, among which may be especially mentioned the 






























ALONZO B. CORNELL. 


163 

bill relative to the supply of water for the city of New York, which he vetoed in 
a message of remarkable clearness and force. Indeed, the volume of Governor 
Cornell’s Public Papers for 1881 is a manual of sound principles for the conduct 
of public affairs. 

The action of Governor Cornell in 1882, in vetoing the general street surface 
railroad bill, the bill for the taxation of elevated railroads, the Civil Code, and the 
Receivership bill, and others of like important character, sustained his reputation 
for having the courage of his convictions, and for firm adherence to the obligations 
of duty. The veto of the Receivership bill, more than any other one act of the 
session, shows his qualities of mind. Public sentiment seemed to demand some sort 
of legislation to correct abuses complained of in connection with the receiverships of 
corporations; but as the Governor could not conscientiously approve the bill which 
was passed for that purpose, he withheld his signature, and filed a memorandum 
giving his reasons therefor, which were expressed with convincing force. 

The administration of Governor Cornell has been pre-eminently successful, in 
that it has promoted the welfare and conserved the security of the People, alike 
in preventing pernicious changes, in rigorously enforcing economy in expenditure, in 
maintaining and observing constitutional safeguards and commands, in securing 
fixity of sound principle, and in upholding, as the needs of society demand, wise, 
practical, and progressive policies in the conduct of the government. 


GEORGE G. 


HOSKINS 


LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR, 


9 


T S one of the self-made men of the country, who by his own unaided efforts has 
achieved high positions in the service of the State. Mr. Hoskins’ parents 
removed, in the year 1808, from Windsor, Hartford county, Connecticut, to the 
forest lands of western New York, settling in Bennington, Wyoming county, where 
he was born December 13, 1824. His opportunities for obtaining an education 
were limited to the district school of his native town; but in those early days of 
pioneer life he acquired habits of endurance and industry which have been to him 
of greater value than the discipline of the schools. 

Early in life he was a successful teacher, but before reaching his majority he 
engaged in a mercantile business in his native town, which he followed for many 
years. Mr. Hoskins early displayed a decided taste for political affairs. When but 
a lad of sixteen years he engaged in the exciting political campaign of 1840, 
associating himself with the Whig party. He remained a Whig until the organ¬ 
ization of the Republican party, with which he at once identified himself, serving 
it with conspicuous zeal and fidelity. The first public position occupied by Mr. 
Hoskins was that of Clerk of his native town of Bennington. He afterward held 
the office of Justice of the Peace sixteen consecutive years, was Postmaster during 
several administrations, and in 1862 was elected Supervisor of his town. In i860 

he was first elected to the State Assembly, and re-elected in 1865 and 1866, being 

chosen in 1865 Speaker of the House, in which position he developed much ability 

as a presiding officer. In the year 1868 Mr. Hoskins removed to Attica, where 

he has since resided; in the same year he was appointed by Governor Fenton one 
of the State Commissioners of Public Accounts, holding the office three years. In 
1871 he was appointed by President Grant Collector of Internal Revenue for the 
Twenty-ninth District of the State of New York, entering upon the duties of that 
office May 1, and resigning March 4, 1873, i n order to take his seat in the Forty- 
third Congress, to which he had been elected. He was re-elected to the Forty-fourth 

[164] 
















GEORGE G. HOSKINS. 


165 

Congress, serving, during his two terms of congressional service, on several impor¬ 
tant committees, among which was a Special Committee to investigate the affairs 
in Louisiana; he was also frequently chosen to occupy the Speaker’s chair, where 
he presided with acknowledged dignity and efficiency. At the Republican State 
Convention held in Saratoga in the autumn of 1879, Mr. Hoskins was nominated 
for Lieutenant-Governor and he was duly elected. 

By virtue of his office he is President of the Senate, and has a casting vote 
therein ; member and Chairman of the New Capitol Commission; Commissioner of 
the Canal Fund and of the Land Office; Trustee of Union College, of the Old 
Capitol, of the New State Hall and of the Idiot Asylum; Regent of the University; 
a member of the Canal Board, of the State Board of Equalization of Assessments, 
and of the State Board of Charities. Mr. Hoskins has applied himself to the 

discharge of the various duties pertaining to these several positions with a con¬ 

scientious zeal that has rendered him eminently successful. As President of the 
Senate he is genial in his manners, impartial in his rulings, and an acknowledged 
authority on parliamentary rules and usages. As an official he exercises tact and 
good judgment, and is painstaking and faithful. Mr. Hoskins has frequently rep¬ 
resented his party in State and National Conventions; he was Chairman of the 

Republican State Convention in 1876, and a Delegate to the National Republican 
Convention at Chicago in 1880, voting on every ballot with the “306” for General 
U. S. Grant. Although Mr. Hoskins’ public activities have been chiefly exercised 
in politics, he has, nevertheless, held other positions of trust and honor, among 

which is the office of Director of the Wyoming County National Bank — a position 
he has occupied continuously since the year 1870. 


HENRY EDWARD ABELL, 

P RIVATE SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNOR, was born in Esperance, 
Schoharie county, June 25, 1837, the youngest of eight children of William 
Bliss and Maria Abell. His father came from Connecticut, of an old New England 
family; his mother was of Scotch-Irish parentage, whose father was an Irish refugee, 
having fled from Ireland during the rebellion of 1798. He came from Cork and was 
a teacher by profession. Young Abell, at the age of fourteen, had lost both parents, 
had no money, no home and few friends. He worked summers and attended school 
in winter, until the age of fifteen, when he entered a store in western New York, 
and stayed there two years. He then came to Albany, where he secured a position 
in a book-store and afterward in a bank. In 1857 he resigned his place in the 
bank to attend school. He was educated at the Delaware Literary Institute, and 
Columbian College; at the latter institution under private tuition. He subsequently 
read law with the late Joseph H. Bradley at Washington, and afterward in New 
York city. In 1859-60 he edited a newspaper in Delaware county, and has retained 
his connection with the press since, with occasional intervals. He was appointed by 
Secretary Chase to a position in his office, which he held from 1861 to 1863, when, 
on account of failing health, he returned to his native county, where he consoli¬ 
dated two Republican papers under the name of the Schoharie Union, which paper 
he edited and published five years. He then went to New York, and in April, 1869, 
was appointed Deputy Surveyor of Customs of the Port of New York by Surveyor 
Cornell. He served four years in that capacity, and was then designated by Col¬ 
lector Arthur to prosecute certain violations of the Navigation laws, which he did 
successfully, putting a stop to a system of fraud that had been practiced for years 
in the registration of vessels. In 1877 he opened a law office in New York, which 
he continued until he came to Albany as Private Secretary to Governor Cornell. 
He has always been a Republican, and has labored for the success of his party and 
its principles in every campaign since he became a voter. He was married to 
Lucia, daughter of Thomas Smith of Cobleskill, New York, in January, 1861, who 
died May 22, 1882, leaving six children to mourn her loss. 


[ 166] 






STAFF OF THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 


^j| HE Governor, by virtue of his office, is Commander-in-Chief of the Militia of 
V4/ the State. The Staff of the Commander-in-Chief consists of an Adjutant- 
General, who is Chief of Staff and ranks as Major-General; an Inspector-General, 
a Chief of Ordnance, an Engineer-in-Chief, a Judge-Advocate-General, a Surgeon- 
General, a Quartermaster-General, a Paymaster-General, a Commissary-General of 
Subsistence, and a General Inspector of Rifle Practice, each of whom ranks as Brig¬ 
adier-General. There are also five Aides-de-Camp upon the Staff, who rank as 
Colonel. The Governor appoints directly all the members of the Staff except the 
Chief of Ordnance. He is also authorized to appoint a Military Secretary, but 
Governor Cornell has not availed himself of the authority. The Adjutant-General, 
Inspector-General, Chief of Ordnance, and General Inspector of Rifle Practice are 
constantly on duty, as well as their Assistants, who rank as Colonel. 

The office of the Adjutant-General is an office of record. Every thing relating 
to the effective state of the troops, to formation, instruction and discipline, falls 
within the department over which the Adjutant-General presides. He is the regular 
channel of communication with the Commander-in-Chief, and all orders, special 
instructions and general regulations issued by the Commander-in-Chief, are prepared 
and published by the Adjutant-General. He receives a salary of $3,000; the Assist¬ 
ant-Adjutant-General a salary of $2,500. By an act passed April 16, 1827, the 
Adjutant-General was directed to' prepare a seal to be used on military commissions, 
certificates, or other official documents, and all copies of records or papers in his 
office, duly certified under this seal, are made evidence in all cases, the same as if 
the originals were produced. 

The Inspector-General is charged with the constant inspection of all branches 
of the military service. He receives $6 per day of actual service, and his Assistant 
is allowed his actual traveling expenses. 

The Chief of Ordnance is the Commissary-General named in the Constitution. 

He has charge of the purchase, sale, preservation, return and issue of military 

property, the care of all arsenals and armories, and the issue of all ammunition 

[ 167] 


STAFF OF THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, 


168 

for rifle practice, etc. He is appointed by the Governor by and with the advice 
and consent of the Senate. His term of office is two years. He receives a salary 
of $2,500; and his Assistant a salary of $2,300. 

The Judge-Advocate-General is the legal adviser of the several staff depart¬ 
ments upon all legal questions which arise therein, and much of his time is 
employed in the review of courts-martial proceedings, of appeals, and disputed points 
of military law and regulations. 

The General Inspector of Rifle Practice has charge of the rifle practice of the 
National Guard throughout the State, and, under the direction of the Commander- 
in-Chief, prescribes the manner in which it shall be performed. He reports to 
general head-quarters the improvement in marksmanship, together with other matters 
appertaining to his duties. His salary is $1,500. 

In case of war, insurrection or rebellion, or imminent danger thereof, when the 
military forces or volunteers of the State of New York, or any part thereof, shall 
be in the actual service of the State, or in the service of the United States, the 
staff of the Commander-in-Chief may be paid such reasonable and just compensation, 
not exceeding the full pay and allowances of officers of the same rank in the army 
of the United States, as the Commander-in-Chief may deem proper, together with 
their necessary expenses. 


























FREDERICK TOWNSEND, 

ADJUTANT-GENERAL. 


/TAJOR-GENERAL TOWNSEND, Adjutant-General of the State of New 
York, was born in Albany, September 21, 1825. His parents, Isaiah and 
Hannah Townsend, were natives of New York, and were both descended from 
English ancestors of the same name, who came to this country in 1640. He pursued 
his preparatory studies at the Albany Academy and Poughkeepsie Collegiate School, 
graduated from Union College in 1844, and studied law in the office of Messrs. 
Pruyn & Martin in Albany. In all this training he had the benefit of every 
possible social advantage, and the opportunity for broad and thorough culture. He 
was appointed Adjutant-General by Governor John A. King January 1, 1857, and 
was reappointed by Governor Edwin D. Morgan January 1, 1859, holding the office 
for four years, and until the 1st of January, 1861. 

General Townsend promptly tendered his services to his country at the begin¬ 
ning of the civil war, organized the Third Regiment of New York State Volunteers, 
of which he was commissioned Colonel in May, and which he commanded at the 
battle of Big Bethel, June 10, 1861. He was appointed Major of the Eighteenth 
Infantry, Regular Army, August 19, 1861, by President Lincoln, and was assigned 
to duty in the west. His command first joined the army of General Buell and 
then that of General Rosecrans. He participated in the reconnoissance to Lick 
Creek, Mississippi, sometimes called Pea Ridge, April 26, 1862. He took part in 
the siege of Corinth, April 30, and in the occupation thereof, May 30, after its 
evacuation by the enemy. On the 6th of October he was in the advance of the 
Third Corps, Army of the Ohio, driving the rear guard of the enemy from Spring- 
field to near Texas, Kentucky ; and took part in the battle of Perryville or Chaplin 
Hill, Kentucky, on the 8th. After the first day of the battle at Stone river, 
Tennessee, December 31, 1862, to January 2, 1863, all his senior officers having been 
shot except the Brigade Commander, he was placed by the latter in command of 
the left wing of the regular brigade. He was also in the affair at Eagleville, 

[169] 


22 


i;o 


FREDERICK TOWNSEND. 


Tennessee, March 2, 1863, with a large force supporting a foraging party. In all 
these various battles, engagements and affairs Major Townsend proved himself to be 
a true and brave soldier, as well as a chivalrous and high-minded gentleman. He 
received, successively, the Brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel, that of Colonel and that of 
Brigadier-General, all in the Regular Army. 

In May, 1863, General Townsend was detailed for duty at Albany, as Acting 
Assistant Provost Marshal General. In 1867, on his return from Europe after a 
leave of absence, he was ordered to California, and placed by General McDowell 
on his staff as Acting Assistant Inspector-General of the Department; and as such 
made an inspection of all the Government posts in Arizona. He resigned his 
commission in 1868. He is a member of the Society of the Army of the Cum¬ 
berland, of the Grand Army of the Republic, and of the Military Order of the 
Loyal Legion of the United States. 

General Townsend has been a Director of the New York State National Bank, 
and Trustee of the Albany and Bethlehem Turnpike Company since 1864; a Trustee 
of Union College and of Vassar College since June 27, 1876; a Trustee of the 
Albany Orphan Asylum since 1879, an d of the Dudley Observatory since April 22, 
1880. He was elected Brigadier-General of the Ninth Brigade, National Guard 
State of New York, in 1878, and resigned that position on the 1st of January, 1880, 
to accept the appointment of Adjutant-General of the State of New York, tendered 
by Governor Cornell. He was nominated by the Republican State Convention in 
1880 for the office of Elector of President and Vice-President, was elected, and cast 
his vote for James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur, for those offices, respectively. 

General Townsend is an accomplished gentleman and generous host in social 
life; a man of strictest integrity in business and public affairs ; and energetic and 
wise in administration. These qualities of character, united with his brilliant career 
and special aptitudes for the place he holds, render his selection alike creditable 
and fortunate for the State. 





\ 







ROBERT SHAW OLIVER, 

INSPECTOR-GENERAL. 

B RIGADIER-GENERAL OLIVER, Inspector-General of the State of New 
York, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, September 13, 1847. He belongs 
to one of the oldest and most influential families of the old Commonwealth, being 
an eldest son of the elder branch of the Oliver family that descended from Thomas 
Oliver, Gentleman, of the parish of St. Thomas, Bristol, England, the grandson of 
whom, also named Thomas, arrived in Boston, Massachusetts, on the 5th of June, 
1632, and was ruling Elder of the First church in that city, besides holding other 
prominent positions. From Thomas Oliver, in direct line through the elder branches 
which survived, the descent is a long and honorable one, the various members of 
the family holding high positions in the Colony and the State. On his mother’s 
side General Oliver is' of the well-known family of Robert Gould Shaw and his 
descendants, noted Abolitionists and staunch Republicans. He was named for his 
grandfather, as were five other members of the family, among whom was the well- 
known and gallant Colonel Robert G. Shaw of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, who 
fell at Fort Wagner, at the head of his regiment, sacrificing his life for the sake of 
his principles in leading the first colored regiment into battle. 

General Oliver, receiving both a classical and military education, was qualified 
at a very early age to take part in the late War of the Rebellion in various 
positions of trust and honor, serving as Second Lieutenant and Adjutant in the 
Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry, as Aide-de-Camp of General Cole commanding Cavalry 
Brigade, Twenty-fifth Army Corps, and as Acting Assistant Adjutant-General of the 
Third Division of same Corps. During the war he took part in the operations 
before Petersburgh and Richmond, being one of the few cavalrymen who entered 
Richmond, at the time of its capture, in advance of the army. He was then 
ordered to Texas with the army of observation stationed on the Rio Grande, and 
was present during the final withdrawal of the French troops from Mexico, and the 
death of the unfortunate Maximilian. He was then transferred to the Regular 

D7i] 


ROBERT SHAW OLIVER. 


17 2 

Army, being commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Seventeenth Infantry ; and 
after serving in New York Harbor during the terrible scourge of the cholera, was 
again ordered to Texas. In 1866 he was transferred to the Eighth Cavalry, and 
served as First Lieutenant and Captain in that Regiment on the Pacific Coast in 
California, Arizona and Oregon, until 1869, when he resigned from service October 
30 of that year. He married, in 1870, the daughter of General John F. Rathbone 
of Albany, and moved to that city, entering business as a partner with his father- 
in-law. August 25, 1873, he was commissioned Colonel of the Tenth Regiment, 
National Guard, State of New York, serving until July 1, 1878, when he became 
Assistant Adjutant-General of the Ninth Brigade, in which position he remained 
until his appointment by Governor Cornell as Inspector-General of the State, Jan¬ 
uary 1, 1880. His varied military experience in the war, in the Army on the 
plains, and in the militia, peculiarly fit him for the position he now occupies. 


DANIEL D. WYLIE, 

CHIEF OF ORDNANCE. 

B RIGADIER-GENERAL WYLIE, Chief of Ordnance of the State of New 
York, was born in Paterson, New Jersey, June 20, 1840, of American par¬ 
entage, his father being a native of Great Bend, New York, and his mother of 
Haverstraw, Orange county, New York. He was educated in the common schools 
of the city of New York, and early engaged in mercantile business, which he still 
follows. He is a Democrat in politics, and was first appointed to his present 
position as Chief of Ordnance by Governor Lucius Robinson January 18, 1877. 

General Wylie has been identified with the National Guard since June 20, i860, 
and has held commissions as Lieutenant, Captain, Major, and Brigadier-General. He 
served during the war of the Rebellion as a private in Company “ I,” Eighth New 
York Volunteers. 

He is one of the Directors of the Fifth National Bank of New York city, 
and is also connected with various other incorporations in the same city. 


LLOYD ASPINWALL, 

ENGINEER-IN-CHIEF. 

T 3 RIGADIER-GENERAL ASPINWALL, Engineer-in-Chief of the State of 
New \ ork, was born in New York city December 13, 1835. He is of English 
descent, and on the paternal side can trace his ancestry back directly to the pilgrims 
of the Mayflower. His maternal grandfather was George Breck of Bucks county, 
Pennsylvania, one of a family highly distinguished in the history of that State. His 
father was the Hon. William Aspinwall, after whom was named the city of Aspinwall 
on the gulf side of the Isthmus of Panama. 

General Aspinwall was educated under the care of the Reverend Doctor Muhlen¬ 
berg of St. I aul s College. He also spent a year in the study of the modern 

languages in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1856 he entered the house of Howland & 

Aspinwall as a partner, and is now the senior member of that firm. 

General Aspinwall s military service began in 1853, when he enlisted as a private 

in the Fourth Artillery, New York State Militia. In 1861 he assisted in the 
organization of the Twenty-second Regiment, New York State Militia, was elected 
Lieutenant-Colonel, and in the year following commanded the regiment in the field, 
Colonel Munroe having died at Harper’s Ferry. In 1863 he commanded the same 
regiment as Colonel. During the battle of Fredericksburgh, in December, 1861, 
General Aspinwall served as a volunteer aid on the staff of Major-General Burn¬ 
side, by whom he was sent to Washington with the first verbal report of the battle 
to President Lincoln. For his services in this battle General Aspinwall received 
the thanks of the Commanding General. In 1861 General Aspinwall was intrusted 
by Major-General Burnside with the purchase and adaptation to the use of the 
service of the steamers and sailing vessels required for the expedition to Roanoke 
Island, Newbern and Fort Macon, but before the completion of the work changes 
were made in his plans by the authorities in Washington, which, in General 
Aspinwall’s opinion, led to the subsequent loss of several of the vessels at Hatteras 
Inlet. In this connection we present the following extract from a letter written 

[ 173 1 


174 


LLOYD ASPINWALL. 


by General Burnside to General Aspinwall April 7, 1862: “How faithfully and 
energetically you have served the Government and aided me in this work. I will 
say that but for the keels (which you did all you could to keep off) the propellers 
would all have gone over the swash at once, and now those that are over are 
the best vessels we have. I think this tells the whole story.” In 1861 General 
Aspinwall was commissioned Brigadier-General of the Fourth Brigade, First Division, 
National Guard, State of New York, and subsequently, on the retirement of Major- 
General Sanford, commanded the Division by virtue of seniority of rank. 

General Aspinwall succeeded General Hancock as President of the Army and 
Navy Club of New York city, and occupied that position for five successive terms. 
He was President, for two terms, of the New York State Military Association, and 
for many years was President of the Military Post Library Association. He has 
also been a Trustee and Director of many other associations and corporations. 

General Aspinwall is a Republican in politics, but has never held any elective 
political office, although frequently urged to accept the nomination of the party for 
important positions. He has several times been urged to accept the nomination for 
Congress from his district; was urged to allow his name to be brought forward for 
Mayor of New York city in 1880, and to accept the nomination for State Senator 
in 1881, but he has always declined such honors. In 1863 he acted as Private 
Secretary to the Commission sent by the Government to England to prevent the 
further equipment and dispatch of rebel privateers. In 1880 he was Chairman of 
the Republican General Committee of the city and county of New York, and dis¬ 
charged the duties of the position during the presidential campaign with marked 
success. He organized the grand Republican parade in October of 1880, which 
resulted in placing forty-eight thousand men, embracing contingents from Philadel¬ 
phia, New Jersey, Brooklyn and the towns along the Hudson, in an unbroken 
column which required five hours and twenty minutes to pass in review. 













HORACE RUSSELL, 

JUDGE-ADVOCATE-GENERAL. 

T 3 RIGADIER-GENERAL RUSSELL, Judge-Advocate-General of the State of 
New \ ork, was born June 19, 1843, in Bombay, Franklin county, New York. 
He is of New England descent, his ancestors settling first in Deerfield, Massa¬ 

chusetts, then in Vermont, and then in northern New York. His father was 
Charles Russell, Member of Assembly from Franklin county in 1858. Mr. Russell 

was clerk for a time in his father’s store, and was fitted for college at Kimball 

Union Academy, Meriden, New Hampshire. He entered Dartmouth College, 

Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1861, and, taking the full course, received the degree 
of Bachelor of Arts from that institution in 1865. During his term in college, he 

taught school in winter seasons. Immediately after leaving college he entered 

Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and after remaining one year went 
to Ogdensburg, New York, where he continued the study of law in the office of 
Judge William C. Brown until admitted to the bar in 1868. After practicing his 

profession there one year he removed to New York city, where he has since resided. 

He married, February 26, 1878, Miss Josephine Hilton, daughter of Judge Henry 
Hilton, New York city. His address is 56 West Thirty-fourth street, New York city. 

Mr. Russell became Assistant District Attorney of New York county, January 
1, 1873, and held the office until July 19, 1880, when he was appointed Judge of the 
Superior Court, in place of Chief Justice Curtis, deceased, his term expiring with 
the year. He was a candidate for the same office in November, and ran some 
twenty thousand votes ahead of the Republican electoral ticket, failing of election 
by some three thousand votes only. His public career has been chiefly that of 
prosecuting officer, and he has been called to conduct many important trials, includ¬ 
ing those of Stokes, Nixon, Sharkey, and the Manhattan Bank burglars. He was 
appointed Judge-Advocate-General January, 1880; and October 26, 1881, he was 
again appointed Judge of the Superior Court of the city of New York, which 
honorable position he fills with marked ability. 

1 ns] 


WILLIAM H. WATSON, 

SURGEON-GENERAL. 

B RIGADIER-GENERAL WATSON, Surgeon-General of the State of New 
York, is a Regent of the University of the State of New York. His 
biography is given in volume III of The Public Service of the State of New 
York. 


CHARLES P. EASTON, 

QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL. 

B RIGADIER-GENERAL EASTON, Quartermaster-General of the State of 
New York, was born in Albany October io, 1824, of Scotch-Irish parentage. 
Charles P. Easton was educated in private schools and at the Albany Academy. 
He entered the lumber business in a subordinate capacity in 1838, and in the spring 
of 1847 engaged in the retail trade upon his own account with more pluck and 
energy than cash capital. In the spring of 1857 he entered into the wholesale 
trade, which he has since conducted. Two of his sons are now partners with him. 

Mr. Easton was President of the Republican County Committee of the county 
of Albany in 1870. He was a candidate for Member of Assembly in 1872 and 
for Senator in 1873, but the district being strongly Democratic and the party harmo¬ 
nious, he was defeated. He has frequently been a Delegate to Republican State 
Conventions. He was an alternate Delegate to the National Republican Convention 
in 1872, and a Delegate to the National Convention in 1880. 

He was President of the Young Men’s Association in i860, and President of 
the Albany County Bible Society from 1870 to 1873. He was a member of the 
Board of Education in 1865, and of the Board of Public Instruction from 1866 to 

[ 176] 


CHARLES P. EASTON. 


177 


i88r, and President of the Board during seven years of this long term of service. 
He has prepared able educational reports, has delivered literary addresses on several 
important public occasions, and was the author of the preamble and resolutions 

providing for the organization of the Albany High School, which was adopted by 

the Board of Public Instruction July i, 1867. At a caucus of the Republican 
members of the Legislature, held March 28, 1882, he was nominated for Regent 
of the University. No choice was effected in the Legislature. 

General Easton was appointed by the Legislature, in 1878, one of the Com¬ 
missioners to enlarge Clinton Prison ; and in 1880 he was appointed by the same 

authority a member of the Commission to erect the new City Hall in Albany. He 

was appointed Quartermaster-General, with the rank of Brigadier-General, by Gov¬ 
ernor Cornell, in January, 1880. In every post he has filled he has displayed 
marked executive ability and strict fidelity. 


JACOB W. 


HOYSRADT, 


PAYMASTER-GENERAL 


B RIGADIER-GENERAL HOYSRADT, Paymaster-General of the State of 
New York, was born in the town of Ancram, Columbia county, New York, 
March 8, 1824. A portion of his early life was spent as a clerk in a general 

country store at Valatie, Columbia county, and also as a clerk in the city of Albany. 

In the spring of 1845 commenced the manufacture of iron at Berkshire, Massa¬ 
chusetts, for Mr. C. C. Alger, in whose employ he remained about five years. The 
Hudson Iron Company being formed in 1849, came with Mr. Alger to Hudson 
in the spring of 1850, and was associated with him in the management of the 
Hudson Iron Works until 1864, a period of fourteen years of active and successful 
experience, requiring talents and business qualifications of a high order. Upon the 
retirement of Mr. Alger, in 1864, Mr. Hoysraclt was chosen general manager of the 
company, by unanimous consent of the directors and stockholders, and has filled 
the position in a very efficient and satisfactory manner ever since. In 1873 he was 
elected President of the Hudson Iron Company, which responsible office he still 
continues to hold, having the general supervision and direction of the business. It 
is sufficient evidence of Mr. Hoysradt’s ability in these positions to say that under 
his efficient management the Hudson Iron Works have been continuously prosperous, 
notwithstanding the great depression in this branch of manufacture throughout the 
country subsequent to the panic of 1873. He is known as a thorough business man, 
and has been actively identified with most of the leading interests of the city of 
H udson. 

Probably no man has done more to build up the industrial and financial welfare 

of Hudson than Mr. Hoysraclt, and his character as a man and citizen is in full 

accord with his eminent business qualifications and successes. He has been an 
earnest Republican since 1856, and has taken an active part not only in local 
politics, but in the general political movements of the State and Nation. In 1868 

he was a Delegate to the National Republican Convention held at Chicago, and was 

[178] 


JACOB W. HOYSRADT 


179 


also a Delegate to the National Republican Convention at Cincinnati in 1876; also 
at Chicago in 1880. In 1858 he was elected Mayor of the city of Hudson, and 
served during the years 1859 and i860. He was again elected to the same office in 
1866, and served during the two following years. He was Postmaster of the city 
of Hudson for eight years, from 1869 to 1877, when he resigned. Since the year 
1876 he has held the office of President of the Farmers’ National Bank of Hudson, 
a position which indicates the confidence reposed in his financial abilities by the 
directors of that institution. He was elected Member of Assembly from the First 
Assembly District of Columbia county, in November, 1878, and served on the Com¬ 
mittee on Ways and Means, and also on the Bank Committee, during the session 
of the Legislature of 1879. He was appointed Paymaster-General by Governor 
Cornell, January 1 1880. 


CHARLES J. LANGDON, 

COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF SUBSISTENCE. 


B RIGADIER-GENERAL LANGDON, Commissary-General of Subsistence of 
the State of New York, was born in Elmira August 13, 1849, °f New England 
parentage. Owing to poor health, which made close application to study impossible, 
Mr. Lanaxlon’s education has been mainly derived from travel and observation. He 
has traveled extensively in Europe, the East, and in this country, and has made 
one tour around the world. He began business as a hardware merchant, but is at 
present engaged in the mining and shipping of anthracite and bituminous coal. 

Mr. Langdon was a member of the City Council of Elmira in the years 1875 
and 1876, and has been a member of the Board of Police since 1878. He was a 
Delegate to the National Republican Convention of 1880, and has also been a Dele- 
o-ate to several State Conventions. He was for a short time Major of the One 
Hundred and Tenth Battalion, National Guard State of New York, and in January, 
1880, was appointed by Governor Cornell Commissary-General of Subsistence, with 
the rank of Brigadier-General. 


9 


ALFRED C. BARNES 

GENERAL INSPECTOR OF RIFLE PRACTICE. 

ORIGADIER—GENERAL BARNES, General Inspector of Rifle Practice of the 
State of New York, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 27, 1842, 
but has resided since 1846 in the city of Brooklyn, New York. He is the eldest 
son of Alfred S. Barnes, founder of the publishing house of A. S. Barnes & Com- 
pany, his mother was a daughter of General Timothy Burr, Commissary of the 
W estern L nited States Army in 1812. 

The son received excellent English and classical instruction at the Brooklyn 
Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute, under John H. Raymond, LL. D., subsequently 
President of A assar College. He entered the publishing house of his father at the 
age of fifteen. After acquiring thorough knowledge of the business, he became 
in 1866 one of his father’s partners, and for some years has assumed important 
business responsibilities, which he is well fitted to meet. He is regarded as one 
of the foremost of the younger school of publishers. His father has latterly relin¬ 
quished a great part of his duties to the younger members of the firm, which now 
consists of his sons, Alfred C. Barnes, Henry B. Barnes and Edwin M. Barnes 
and his nephew, Charles J. Barnes. 

Mr. Barnes enlisted in Company C, Seventh Regiment, National Guard, Decem¬ 
ber 15, i860, taking part in the memorable march of that regiment to the front in 
April, 1861 ; he was transferred to Company E, Twenty-third Regiment, National 
Guard, November 20, 1862, and was identified with it during its efficient service in 
the civil war. He was appointed Sergeant in 1863, participating in the campaign 
around Gettysburg; and was elected First Lieutenant, Company E, May 10, 1864, 
resigning December 26, 1867. After nine years of retirement, he was elected Major 
of the same regiment on the 23d of October, 1876, and commanded a detachment 
of the regiment during a very critical period in the riots of July, 1877. He was 
also Commandant of the Twenty-third Regiment Cadet Battalion for training lads 
for future service in the regiment. Major Barnes was prominently mentioned, in 

[ lS °] 
























ALFRED C. BARNES. 


181 


1879, as successor to Major-General Dakin in command of the Second Division of 
the National Guard. He was appointed by Governor Cornell General Inspector of 
Rifle Practice, on the 1st of January, 1880, and has introduced into the service 
practice-firing by the troops in ranks, at Creedmoor and the other ranges. The 
new State range at Peekskill was constructed under his personal supervision. 

General Barnes is a Republican in politics, and has been called to serve his 
party in various ways. He has been for two terms President of the Republican 
Association of the Twentieth ward of Brooklyn, an Association which contains two 
thousand five hundred members; he was Chairman of the Third District Senatorial 
Convention in 1877, and of the District Congressional Convention in 1880; and was 
a Delegate to the State Convention in 1881. The same year he was Chairman of 
the citizens’ mass meeting which nominated Ripley Ropes for Mayor. Mr. Ropes 
having withdrawn, the meeting was reconvened, when Seth Low was nominated and 
subsequently elected as the Republican and Independent candidate. General Barnes 
is a Trustee of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge Company and of the Adelphi 
Academy, a Director of the National Rifle Association, Vice-President of the Brooklyn 
Library, President of the Oxford Club and of the Central Booksellers’ Association, 
and also holds many other important positions. He was one of the Commissioners 
to receive the French and German delegates to the celebration of the centennial 
Anniversary of the Battle of Yorktown. Mr. Barnes has always been greatly 
interested in Sunday School work, and was for several years Superintendent of the 
flourishing Grand Avenue Mission School, Brooklyn. 

In connection with other work, General Barnes has also found time for much 
writing. He has published many valuable articles, having wide range of subjects, 
and is a frequent contributor to various periodicals and papers. He takes compre¬ 
hensive views, and presents his subjects with clearness. He wields a versatile pen, 
and its influence is widely acknowledged. Among his literary contributions may be 
mentioned: “Controversy on the Methods of Teaching the German,” 1869; “On 
the Pacific Rail,” 1871; “The Field of the Cloth of Gold,” 1872; “On Courts 
Martial,” 1877; “Campaign Sketches,” 1878; “The East River Suspension Bridge,” 
1880; “Official Report of Rifle Practice,” 1881. 

In 1863 General Barnes married Josephine E., daughter of Henry A. Richardson, 
of Brooklyn. They have had three children; Harriet J., born in 1864, Mary Grace, 
born in 1867, and Alfred Victor, born in 1870. Mary Grace died January 7, 1873; 
the others are now living. 

Whether we consider General Barnes as a publisher, an author, or a soldier 
and army officer, we find him always performing every duty with marked ability 
and rare success. 


JAMES M. VARNUM, 

AIDE-DE-CAMP. 

C OLONEL VARNUM, Aide-de-Camp, was a Member of Assembly from New 
York city in 1880. His biography will be found in volume II of The Public 
Service of the State of New York. 


HENRY M. WATSON, 

AIDE-DE-CAMP. 

C OLONEL WATSON, Aide-de-Camp, is a native of Unadilla, New York, where 
he was born May 13, 1839. He is of American parentage, but of English 
descent. His father, Hon. Arnold B. Watson, was a Member of Assembly in 1839 
and 1840. Colonel Watson was educated at the Unadilla Academy and at the 
private school of Rev. Thomas C. Read, at Geneva, New York. In 1857 he removed 
from Unadilla to Albany and was engaged in the banking business in that city until 
1867, being also during the last two years of that period General Passenger Agent of 
the Albany and Susquehanna railroad. In 1868 he removed to Buffalo, and from 1869 
to 1881 was Secretary and Treasurer of the Buffalo Street Railroad Company. He 
is now President of the same company, and also of the Bell Telephone Company of 
Buffalo; he is Secretary and Treasurer of the Railway Register Manufacturing Com¬ 
pany, and Secretary of the Buffalo East Side Street Railway Company. He is a 
Director in the Union Fire Insurance Company and also in the Farmers and 
Mechanics’ National Bank of Buffalo. While a resident of Albany, Colonel Watson 
became in 1862 a member and one of the founders of Company “A,” Tenth Regi¬ 
ment, National Guard; he was promoted to be Second Lieutenant in 1865, and is 
still an honorary member of the company. He received the appointment of Aide-de- 
Camp on the staff of the Commander-in-Chief, with rank of Colonel, January 1, 1881. 

[ 182] 















FRANCIS 


MANN, Jr., 





AIDE-DE-CAMP. 


C OLONEL MANN, Aide-de-Camp, was born in Troy, New York, August 2, 
1849. His parents were natives of New York State but of New England 
descent. He graduated from Yale College in 1870, receiving the degree of Bachelor 
of Arts, and from the Albany Law School in 1872, receiving the degree of Bachelor 
of Laws. He was an Alderman of the city of Troy from 1873 to 1 877 ; from 

1873 to 1 S8o he was a member of the Staff of Major-General Carr, commanding the 

Third Division of the National Guard of the State of New York, and in 1879 he 

was a member of the Assembly. He was appointed Aide-de-Camp on the Staff 

of the Commander-in-Chief, with rank of Colonel, January 1, 1880. Colonel Mann 
resides in Troy, and is engaged in the practice of the law. 


CHARLES S. FRANCIS, 

AIDE-DE-CAMP. 


C OLONEL FRANCIS, Aide-de-Camp, was born in the city of Troy, June 17, 
1853, and has always lived in that city. He is a son of Hon. John M. 
Francis, the founder, and still one of the proprietors, of the Troy Times , who for 
several years was United States Minister to Greece, and who is at present accredited 
in a similar capacity to the Kingdom of Portugal. 

Colonel Francis’ education was received at the Troy Academy and at Cornell 
University. He was City Editor of the Troy Times from 1878 to May 2, 1881, at 
which time, a change having taken place, he became the Manager of the paper and 

also one of the proprietors, under the firm name of J. M. Francis, Son & Company. 

[183] 


184 


CHARLES S. FRANCIS. 


Colonel Francis held the position of Cadet Captain during his senior year at 
Cornell University, and was appointed Aide-de-Camp on the staff of Major-General 
Joseph B. Carr, commanding the Third Division of the National Guard, with rank 
of Captain, October 15, 1877. On the 22d of December, 1877, he was promoted 
to be Major, and on the 1st of January, 1880, he was again promoted to the 
staff of the Commander-in-Chief, with rank of Colonel. 


JOHN T. MOTT, 

AIDE-DE-CAMP. 


C OLONEL MOTT, Aide-de-Camp, was born in Hamilton, Madison county, 
October 11, 1848. His parents were Americans. He prepared for college 
at Walnut Hill, Geneva, and entered Union College, from which institution he 
graduated, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1868 and of Master of 
Arts in 1872. Since leaving college he has been engaged in banking business, 
and is now Vice-President of the First National Bank, Oswego, New York. He 
is a Republican in politics, but has never held any political office. He enlisted 
in Cavalry Troop E, Twenty-fourth Brigade, National Guard of the State of New 
York, in 1870; he was appointed Brigade Quartermaster, with rank of Captain, 
on the staff of Brigadier-General Sullivan, commanding the Brigade, November 30, 
1872, and was promoted to be Inspector of Rifle Practice, with rank of Major, 
September 5, 1877. He was appointed Aide-de-Camp on Governor Cornell’s staff, 
with rank of Colonel, January 1, 1880. 











JOHN S. McEWAN, 


ASSISTANT ADJUTANT-GENERAL. 

C OLONEL McEWAN, Assistant Adjutant-General of the State of New York, is 

a native of Glasgow, Scotland, where he was born on the 7th of August, 1841. 

He removed to this country at an early age, was educated at the Albany Academy, 
and for a time was engaged in mercantile pursuits, although the greater part of his 
life has been passed in the military service of the United States. 

In April, 1861, before he was twenty years old, he enlisted as a private in 

Company “A,” Tenth Regiment, National Guard, State of New York. August 9, 
1862, he was commissioned First Lieutenant in the One Hundred and Thirteenth 
New York Yolunteers, and January 24, 1864, he was promoted to be Captain in the 
Seventh New York Artillery. He resigned June 1, 1866, with brevet commissions as 
Major United States Volunteers, and Major, Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel New 
York Volunteers. He was wounded June 3, 1864, at the battle of Cold Harbor, and 
also in the engagement at Hatches Run, Virginia, February 7, 1865. He was taken 
prisoner July 27, 1864, while serving on the staff of General Francis C. Barlow, and 
was held for a time as hostage for a Confederate officer, but was paroled October 
17, 1864, and finally exchanged about December 13, 1864. During February and 
March, 1865, he was in charge of the Confederate prisoners at Fort McHenry. 
August 17, 1867, he entered the Regular Army as Second Lieutenant, LInited States 
Artillery, and while in the United States service was brevetted First Lieutenant and 
Captain in the United States Army for gallantry at Spottsylvania Court-House and 
Cold Harbor. He resigned December 15, 1872. During the war Colonel McEwan 
served on the staffs of Generals Miles, Barlow, Haskins, Morris, Macy and Macauley. 
Prior to appointment to his present position he was Major and Lieutenant-Colonel, 
Tenth Regiment, National Guard, State of New York. 


24 


FREDERICK PHISTERER, 


ACTING ASSISTANT ADJUTANT-GENERAL. 


C OLONEL PHISTERER, Acting Assistant Adjutant-General, was born October 
ii, 1836, in Wiirtenberg, Germany. He enjoyed a liberal education in the 


high schools of his native country, and while preparing for a course of law study 


at the University in Tubingen, emigrated to the United States in 1855. 

He enlisted in the Third United States Artillery, December 6, 1855, and after 
having passed the various grades of non-commissioned officer, was honorably dis¬ 
charged December 6, i860. In July, 1861, he again enlisted in the service, and the 
same day was appointed Sergeant-Major in the Eighteenth United States Infantry; 
he was commissioned Second Lieutenant October 30, 1861, First Lieutenant Feb¬ 
ruary 27, 1862, Captain February 15, 1866, and at his own request was honorably 

discharged August 4 , 1870. From 1870 to 1879 Colonel Phisterer was engaged in 
mercantile pursuits in New York city and in Columbus, Ohio. While a resident 
of the latter city he was elected Captain of the Governor’s Guard, National Guard 

of Ohio, but resigned the position January 29, 1879, when he removed to New York. 

January 1, 1880, he was appointed Acting Assistant Adjutant-General, State of New 


York. 




B. 


ACTING ASSISTANT ADJUTANT-GENERAL. 


C OLONEL and Brevet Brigadier-General Stonehouse, Acting Assistant Adjutant- 
General, has served in the Adjutant-General’s office continuously from April 
15, 1861, to the present time. He has been Chief Clerk, Acting Assistant Adju¬ 
tant-General, and Assistant Adjutant-General, with rank of Major, Colonel, and 
Brigadier-General. He was born at Maidstone, Kent, England, December 23, 1813. 

[ l8( U 







THE STATE ARSENAL, ALBANY 






















































THE MILITIA 


By Major-General FREDERICK TOWNSEND, Adjutant-General. 


jjT HE Militia is an ancient institution. It is traceable along the centuries through 
the Train Bands of Old England, which Milton said “are the trustiest and 
most proper strength of a free nation.” It is said by a distinguished English his¬ 
torian who recently visited this country, that its origin is so remote as to be almost 
legendary. It is indeed one of those institutions which are the direct outcome of 
a brave and sturdy people, jealous of their individual rights whether menaced by a 
public enemy from without or an oppressive and tyrannical government from within ; 
and Old England, to judge alone from the sturdy self-reliant Englishman as he 
appears to-day, with his love of individual freedom and good order, his exalted 
respect for the sanctity of the family altar, and the overweening tenacity with which 
he clings to municipal rights and usages, was indeed the country of all others to 
furnish the conditions of its maintenance and growth. Perhaps it may not be too 
much to say that to the spirit which gave rise to this institution may be ascribed 
the grandeur of the British Empire, now challenging the admiration of the nine¬ 
teenth century; its Monarchy resting securely on the support of a liberty-loving, 
enlightened people. It is but natural then in this land, which shares England’s 
best thought and feeling, that the institution should be found to exist, in a sound 
and flourishing condition, coming down to us also from our own “times immemorial 
The institution very naturally came to these shores with our English ancestors as 
part of their “Church militant” for the defense of their lives, and of their liberties. 
Its origin here may be said to date back to Captain Miles Standish and the 
pilgrims of the May Flower—and in the earlier colonial times to have been needed 
only in the protection of small hamlets from Indian massacre or for defense against 
the organized forays of such chiefs as King Philip and his savages. Coming down 
to a later period, “the year 1774 witnessed the formation of new militia companies 
in all the Colonies. New England had made especial progress in that direction. 

The noiseless arming of the people and the formation of independent organizations 

[187] 


THE MILITIA. 


188 

were of still earlier date. The experience of the old French War had developed 
a necessity for fair military acquirements, and had educated many leaders fully com¬ 
petent for small commands; while a growing uneasiness, in view of the increasing 
influx of British troops, inspired others to a studious preparation for the probable 
issue of force with the mother country;”* so that when the Revolution was finally 
inaugurated, there were already fair organizations of militia among us to form on 
our part the base of the earlier operations of that war. Indeed it was the Militia, 
whether organized as Continentals or as Volunteers, or acting in its own oro-aniza- 
tion, that fought out the war, though happily and very materially aided by our 
gallant French allies. 

After the separation from the mother country had been effected and the time 
had arrived for the confederated States to form a Nation, our forefathers wisely 
recognized the Militia as the people’s army. But they were especially careful while 
establishing the organic law — the Constitution of the United States — to delegate 
to Congress exclusively, among certain well-defined powers, that “to provide for 
arming and disciplining the Militia and governing such part of them as may be 
employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively 
the appointment of the officers and the authority of training the Militia according 
to the discipline prescribed by Congress,” and they were likewise careful to provide 
that “ the President shall be Commander-in-Chief of the Militia of the several States 
when called into the actual service of the United States.” Thus we observe that 
while the Militia is organized within States of citizens thereof and officered by the 
States respectively, it is nevertheless a Federal force, liable at any time to be called 
into the service of the United States, though when not in such service it is under 
the exclusive orders of the Governors of the respective States, as Commanders-in- 
Chief within their own sovereignties. 

The power thus delegated was not exercised by Congress until the year 1792, 
about five years after the Constitution was signed in convention, when it passed an 
act entitled “An act more effectually to provide for the national defense, by estab¬ 
lishing an uniform Militia throughout the United States.” Prior to the passage of 
this act, the Militia in the States was existing under the laws of the respective 
States and was consequently of diverse organization, and the law of Congress was 
needed to render it homogeneous so that it might be effective as an army for the 
whole country. 

The State of New York, however, had already, in 1786, passed a law providing 
a very good organization for its Militia, based upon the theory that every able-bodied 
male citizen between the ages of sixteen and forty-five years was loyally bound to 


* Col. H. B Carrington, U. S. Army, in his Battles of the American Revolution , page 83. 



THE MILITIA. 


189 


be prepared at all times to. defend the public weal, and it required him to be 
enrolled by the Captain of the respective company district, and within three months 
after such enrollment to provide himself with a musket and bayonet, pouch with 
twenty-four cartridges, blanket, knapsack, etc. Brigades, regiments and companies of 
infantry and companies of artillery and troops of cavalry were provided for, as well 
as a common uniform for officers and men, which was to be procured at individual 
expense. All the Militia were to rendezvous four times in the year for training and 
discipline — once by brigade, once by regiment and twice by companies, for such 
length of time as the Commander-in-Chief (Governor) might direct. The law was 
quite elaborate, providing among other things that the Adjutant-General was to 
review the brigades once each year, and attend all the parades during the time 
the troops were under arms, to inspect them and introduce a system of discipline 
throughout the State under such orders as he might receive from the Commander-in- 
Chief (Governor). In case of insurrection or invasion, or apprehension thereof, 
the Commander-in-Chief (Governor) might order out any number of the Militia for 
as long a period as he might deem necessary, and he might also, on application 
of the Executive of any other State , on invasion or apprehension thereof , order any 
number of the Militia , not exceeding one-third part thereof, into such State. It also 
treats of Courts-Martial and the imposition and collection of fines. The law passed 
by Congress in 1792, however, became the organic law for the Militia, to which 
the laws of the States were subsequently made to conform. It proceeds upon the 
same theory as that of the State of New York which was passed six years earlier, 
and recites pretty much the same provisions as to individual service, enrollment, 
etc., exempting, however, certain office-holders and other persons mentioned therein, 
and in many respects is so similar as to give rise to the belief that the New 
York law was the basis of that of Congress. But whatever alteration was required 
in the New York law, was promptly made by the State in an enactment which 
its Legislature passed in 1793, the year following that of Congress; and further in 
1794 it appropriated seventy-five thousand dollars to provide artillery, arms, etc., 
for the Militia. From the spirit underlying these acts, it is very evident that it 
was the intention to constitute the Militia the Reserve Army of the land — the 
Active Army comprising the United States Regulars — since to this day it has 
answered this end, whether in the War of 1812, the Mexican War or the War of 
the Rebellion. For out of the Militia have to a large degree come the recruits 
for the Regulars as well as the Volunteers and their officers, who, together with 
the organized Militia, fought these wars to a successful termination. 

Following the Revolution, the States, in the infancy of the Republic, fearing 
that the country might be again embroiled with England or some other foreign 
power, sedulously enforced the Militia laws in all the requirements of military details, 


THE MILITIA. 


190 

based on the congressional statutes. Close attention on the part of all was given 
to the annual parades, which were from four to six days’ duration; delinquents 
were heavily fined and in default of payment were imprisoned. Though a common 
uniform was early prescribed by State enactment to be provided at individual 
expense, it was not in the earlier days procured by the bulk of the Militia, which 
commonly appeared on parade in ordinary citizen attire, but with the essentials, the 
arms and accoutrements, complete. The General and Field Officers and Staffs were 
however uniformed; so also were certain flank companies of regiments, such as 
the Grenadiers, Light Infantry or Rifles, and companies of Artillery and troops of 
Cavalry attached to brigades, who were all exempt from jury duty. In the course 
of years other uniformed companies and troops were organized, and being gradually 
consolidated with those already existing into regiments and battalions, constituted 
what was commonly known as the “Uniformed Militia,” in contra-distinction from the 
un-uniformed. On the days allotted to the annual parade of the Militia, known 
as “General Training,” both descriptions of the force paraded together at the same 
time and place. These uniformed companies, having arisen out of comrade- 
association, had, so to speak, a continuous existence of a sort of quasi-corporate 
character, being governed among themselves by a “Constitution and By-Laws.” In 
addition to the annual occasions when the multitude was under arms, these com¬ 
panies paraded separately, either as regiments or battalions or independently, on 
the Fourth of July, Washington’s Birth-day, and in the city of New York on the 
anniversary of the evacuation of that city by the British army. To these organ¬ 
izations may be ascribed the origin of our present “ National Guard.” 

Subsequently to the War of 1812, the belief became general among the people 
that England was at last satisfied that we had indeed become a Nation which 

o 

could not be vanquished, and that no other foreign power would willingly battle 
with a people against whom England had twice signally failed; and hence the com¬ 
mon interest in the Militia began to flag and gradually to wane, for its raison 
d'etre in the direction of foreign aggression had practically ceased. Its un-uni- 
formed portion finally received its coup de grace in the year 1854, when, by the 
State enactment of that year, this portion of the force, which had come to be a 
burlesque rabble, was permitted to drop out entirely, on the annual payment of 
fifty cents by each enrolled man in commutation of the service required by the law 
of Congress of every able-bodied citizen, between the ages of eighteen and forty- 
five years, not exempt by statute. The uniformed Militia, however, during these 
years of the decadence of the un-uniformed portion, was waxing in numbers and 
in discipline, and this year 1854 found the State possessed of a corps d'arme of 
some sixteen thousand uniformed Militia, divided among its cities and large villages, 
into divisions, brigades, regiments and companies, passibly disciplined, and in some 


THE MILITIA. 


191 

instances exceedingly well instructed. From this time the State has addressed itself, 
by its laws, to the development of this uniformed Militia, which it now calls its 
National Guard, treating it as the Active Militia, while it still enrolls the un-uni- 
formecl Militia as the Reserve, and provides the machinery of drafting from it in 
the event of necessity, in the contingency of extensive insurrection or invasion, or 
on the call of the President of the United States for a force larger than can be 
furnished by the National Guard alone. 

In all this the State has by its laws simply crystallized public opinion, long 
tending in the direction of the development of a uniformed Militia for the practical 
purpose of its being at all times ready and capable, as the armed power of the 
State, to restore the laws and order of a community whenever imperiled beyond 
the restraining power of the civil officers. The wisdom of the State in this regard 
has been repeatedly manifested since 1854, in the prompt and effective quelling, by 
its National Guard, of serious and bloody riots in the city of New York—such as 
the “Astor Place Riot,” the “Draft Riot” and the “Orange Riot” — and notably 
vindicated in the still recent great and wide-spread conspiracy of railroad employees 
in 1877, when the whole National Guard was put under arms, and by the alacrity 
with which it responded to orders, and by its defiant attitude, signally quelled and 
dissipated a conspiracy which might have cost the State many millions of dollars. 

The wisdom of the State in thus developing its National Guard is further 
manifest if we reflect a moment upon the immense increase of the population of 
our country in the last decade, now assuming such gigantic proportions as to lead 
to the belief that in twenty-five more years there will be a hundred millions of 
people in the land. That there will then be greater need of repressive force 
than now, there cannot be the shadow of a doubt. But what shall the force be? 
Shall it be an armed police? That would indeed be the worst and most dan¬ 
gerous kind of a standing army that the State could have. We cannot have the 
regular army greatly increased, and caserncd in the large cities of the country, as 
in Europe, for this would be contrary to the principles on which the Government 
is based, and utterly repugnant to the very instincts of the people. No, we must 
have the Militia as the one remaining force consonant with the genius of the land. 
It is by this force that individual liberty has been achieved, and it is by this force 
it will be best maintained. The National Guard is but its active part; its members 
volunteer and are enlisted for a period of five years to do the duty required by 
the laws of Congress of every able-bodied citizen, between the ages of eighteen and 
forty-five years, not exempt by statute. They are, for the most part, artisans, 
farmers and representatives of the commercial class, a large and increasing part of 
whom are more or less directly interested, as freeholders, in the good ordef and 
stability of the State, all together constituting a body of citizen soldiery in whose 


192 


THE MILITIA. 


loyalty and sturdy nature the State may safely rely. In the development of the 
National Guard as its armed magistracy, the State does not lose sight of the further 
practical fact achieved thereby, that by the instruction imparted and the discipline 
enforced throughout the Guard, it is constantly preparing and graduating, on the 
cadet system, a vast amount of officer material, to be turned over to the General 
Government in the event of Federal emergency requiring the hasty organization of 
an army of volunteers, which, when well officered, readily and speedily become as 
good a fighti ng body as is ever needed in battle. 

In this way does the State discharge its military obligations under the laws of 
Congress, although it must be confessed not precisely in accordance with their 
obsolete provisions. Yet, in their spirit and in the results these laws are practical 
and effective; as, witness in the breaking out y of the war of the Rebellion in 1861, 
when the State was able immediately to respond to the General Government by 
sending promptly a large number of its regiments of the uniformed Militia — eight 

of which served throughout the war— to the front, to occupy and hold the situation 

until it might have time to organize its quota of volunteers called for by the 
President of the United States. These, also, as it proved in fact, were organized 
for the most part from the body of the people — the reserve Militia — though to a 
large extent supplemented both in the officers and enlisted grade by individuals 

from the uniformed — the active—Militia. 

As a matter of fact of which the State may well be proud, it sent to the 
front in the year 1861, of its uniformed Militia, eleven regiments; in 1862, twelve 
regiments; in 1863, twenty-six regiments; in 1864, sixteen regiments; in addition 
to five companies of infantry and two troops of cavalry. 

It was fortunate for the General Government that the State of New York 
had thus arranged its Militia system in time, whereby it practically demonstrated 
so satisfactorily to the Government the feasibility of the system as fully equal to 

the requirements of the present advanced state of the art of war; while any system 
resting upon its own obsolete laws of 1792 and 1803 would unquestionably have 
proved a total failure. And still these are the only laws, up to the present time, 
that Congress has passed for the organization of the Militia since the Constitution 
of the United States was signed in Convention. 

Very naturally following the termination of the Rebellion, the National Guard 
of the State increased largely in numbers, and becoming excessive, unwieldy and 
burdensome to the tax payers, it has from time to time been largely reduced, until in 
1880 it reached the proportion of twenty thousand officers and men. The force still 
being deemed excessive in view of the amount of money which the State is willing 
annually to appropriate for its support, it has been further reduced to twelve thou¬ 
sand five hundred officers and men, on the principle that the fixed annual appropria- 


THE MILITIA. 


193 


tion for this number would enable the State to provide a National Guard better 
qualified as soldiers by subjecting it annually to the training and discipline of a 
rigid camp of instruction ; and this procedure the State proposes, for a portion of 
the force, to commence this year. 

I he National Guard now comprises four divisions, eight brigades, fifteen regi¬ 
ments of infantry and one infantry battalion, seven batteries, and forty separate 
infantry companies, making in all a grand total, as stated above, of about twelve 
thousand officers and enlisted men, a force well in hand and believed to be capable 
of responding effectively to any soldierly duty likely to be demanded of it. 

At the commencement of the Revolutionary War the Militia was the only exist¬ 
ing force of which our forefathers could make use in contending with England in 
the earlier battles and engagements of the war; later on, however, the Continentals 
more than divided the honor. It appears from the actual returns of the War 
Department that in the year 1775 there were furnished from New York, Massachu¬ 
setts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, 27,443 officers and men; and, as 
conjectured, from Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia, 10,180 of three, 
six and eight-months men. In the year 1776 a “Continental Army” began to appear 
toward which thirteen of the States furnished in that year 46,891 officers and men, 
and of Militia 26,060, and, as conjectured, from eight of those States an additional 
Militia of 16,700 of four, six and eight-months men. In the year 1777 the same 
States furnished, of Continentals, 34,820 officers and men, and of Militia, 10,100, and, 
as conjectured, from twelve of these States an additional Militia either for two, six 
or eight months of 23,800. In the year 1778 the same States furnished, of Conti¬ 
nentals, 32,899; of Militia, 4,353 ; and, as conjectured, from six of those States of 
two, three and six-months men, Militia, 13,800. In the year 1779 the same States, 
excepting South Carolina, furnished, of Continentals, 27,699, and of Militia, 5,135, and, 
as conjectured, from five of these States of two, three, six, eight and nine-months 
men, Militia, 12,350. In the year 1780 these thirteen States furnished, of Conti¬ 
nentals, 21,015, and of Militia, 5,811, and, as conjectured, from five of those States 
of two, three, four, eight and twelve-months men, Militia, 16,000. In the year 1781 
these thirteen States furnished, of Continentals, 13,292, and of Militia, 7,298, and in 
addition by four of the States, of Militia, 8,750. In the year 1782 these thirteen 
States furnished, of Continentals, 14,256, and three of the States, as conjectured, 
3,750. In the year 1783 these thirteen States furnished, of Continentals, 13,476. 
Making, from the years 1775 to 1783, both inclusive, in the aggregate, of Conti¬ 
nentals, 204,348, and of Militia, 191,530. 

In the War of 1812 the Regular Army, having taken the place of the Con¬ 
tinentals, numbered in 1812, of officers and men, 6,686; in 1813, 19,036; in 1814, 


25 


T 94 


THE MILITIA. 


38,186; in 1815, 38,424. The Militia force during this war comprised a total of 
471,622 officers and men. 

In the Mexican War there were 116,321 officers and men engaged on the part 
of this country, of whom 42,545 were Regulars and 73,776 Militia — Volunteers — 
from twenty-five States, including the Territory of Utah. 

In the War of the Rebellion the Militia and Volunteers furnished from the 
States sustaining the General Government amounted in the aggregate to 2,859,132 
men, of which the State of New York, as appears from the official records, furnished 
467,047 men. For Militia serving thirty days the General Government gave the 
State no credit. This class of troops amounted to 16,213 m en. A large number 
of citizens of the State were appointed to positions in the Regular Army and in 
the Volunteer Staff Corps, for most of whom the State received also no credit. 
The aggregate of these two classes, added to the number credited to the State, 
would make the number of men furnished by the State during the Rebellion, in 
round numbers, 484,000. 


ALEXANDER SHALER, 

"A /T AJOR-GENERAL commanding the First Division of the National Guard of 
the State of New York, has a long, eventful and brilliant military history, 
rich in achievements, and distinguished by high military honors. His military career 
commenced as earl)- as 1845, since which time he has held positions in almost 
every grade from private to Major-General, either in State or United States service. 
He was a Captain in the famous Seventh Regiment for nearly eleven years, 
during which time he instructed all the recruits, brought the company to a higher 
state of efficiency, and increased its membership to the maximum. Colonel Emmons 
Clark, now commanding the regiment, was a member of the last class of recruits 
instructed by him. While Captain in the Seventh Regiment he resided for five 
years in Hudson county, New Jersey, and during that time held the position of 
Colonel of the hirst Regiment of the Hudson Brigade, New Jersey State Militia. 
In i860 he was promoted to be Major in the Seventh Regiment. 

The day the news was received in New York that Fort Sumter had been 
taken. Major Shaler left for Washington, had an interview with Hon. Simon 
Cameron, Secretary of War, and offered his services to the ’Government. He was 
informed of the President’s intention to call for seventy-five thousand troops, and 
urged by the Secretary of War to bring the Seventh Regiment to Washington 
as soon as possible. He returned the same day to New York, communicated 
with the commanding officer of the regiment, Colonel Marshal Lefferts, and received 
permission to call a meeting of the officers of the regiment at two p. m. that 
day. He attended the drill of the right wing of the regiment on the evening 
of the same day, and of the left wing on the evening of the following day, and 
made known to the men the great alarm felt in Washington, and the desire of 
the Government to have the regiment at the Capital. On both occasions, officers 
and men were enthusiastically in favor of starting for Washington at once, and, 
three days after, on April 19, 1861, the regiment left New York, and was mustered 
into the United States service, April 26, in the city of Washington, for one month. 
The regiment remained in the service about six weeks, during which time Major 

Shaler completed a new manual of arms for light infantry, and instructed the 

[195] 


196 


ALEXANDER SHALER. 


company officers in its use. Major Shaler returned to New York with the regiment, 
and, after its muster out, was appointed by the President Lieutenant-Colonel of 
the First United States Chasseurs, afterward known as the Sixty-fifth New York 
Volunteers, the organization, drill and instruction of which devolved upon him. 
In July, 1862, he was promoted to the Colonelcy of this regiment, which was 
afterward attached to the Sixth Corps, taking part in all the battles of the Army 
of the Potomac, and maintaining throughout the war a high reputation for discipline, 
proficiency and reliability. 

In May, 1863, Colonel Shaler was appointed Brigadier-General United States 
Volunteers, and assigned to the command of the First Brigade, Third Division, 
Sixth Corps, this being the brigade to which his regiment was attached, and which 
he had commanded by virtue of seniority since the resignation of General John 
Cochran, March 1, 1863. In the winter of 1863-4 General Shaler’s brigade was 
ordered to Johnson’s Island, Sandusky Bay, to guard against an anticipated effort 
from Canada to release the Confederate prisoners confined there. He was in 
command of the prison three months, and in the spring of 1864 returned with 
three regiments of his brigade to the Army of the Potomac. He was taken 
prisoner in the battle of the Wilderness, confined for a few weeks at Macon, 
Georgia, and then removed to Charleston, South Carolina, with fifty other general 
and field officers ordered by the Confederate Government to be placed under the 
fire of the Union batteries on Morris Island. He was subsequently exchanged, 
and, upon the application of General Canby, then commanding the Military Division 
of West Mississippi, was ordered to New Orleans, where he was assigned by 
General J. J. Reynolds to the command of the Third Brigade, Second Division, Nine¬ 
teenth Corps. He was subsequently ordered by General Sol. Meredith, commanding 
Department of Kentucky, to Columbus, Kentucky, where head-quarters were 
established in November, 1864. In December following, General Shaler was placed 
in command of the Second Division, Seventh Army Corps, and of the White River 
District in the Department of Arkansas, with head-quarters at Duvall’s Bluff. 

While here he was commissioned by the President as Major-General of Volunteers 
by brevet. 

General Shaler was not mustered out of the service until four months after 
the close of the war, and during his service he never shunned danger or hardship, 
taking a conspicuous part in the battles of Williamsburgh, Fair Oaks, Malvern 
Hill, Antietam, Fredericksburgh, Gettysburgh, Wilderness, and many other of the 
most important engagements of the war. He frequently received verbal and 
written acknowledgments from his superior officers for gallant and meritorious 

conduct on the battle-field. January 23, 1867, General Shaler was appointed Major- 

General of the First Division New York State National Guard. 


ALEXANDER SHALER. 


197 


During his long military experience General Shaler has taken part in the 
suppression of every riot in New York and vicinity, including the Astor Place 
riot in 1849, except the draft riots of 1863. 

General Shaler was born, of American parentage, in Haddam, Connecticut, 
March 19, 1827. Educated in common and high schools, at private schools in 
New York city, and at Brainard Academy in his native city, he early engaged in 
business, and in 1861 he was the head of three different business firms, viz.: 
A. Shaler & Co., blue stone dealers, New York city ; A. Shaler, blue stone and 
building material, Hoboken, New Jersey, and Shaler, Gardner & Co., general con¬ 
tractors, Hudson county, New Jersey. He was Supervisor of the county of New 
York in 1867, President of the Metropolitan Fire Department from 1867 to 1870, 
Commissioner of the Fire Department from 1870 to 1873, anc l Consulting Engineer 
to the Board of Police and Fire Commissioners of Chicago, Illinois, from November, 
1874, to April, 1875. Whilst at the head of the New York Fire Department, 
he made a careful study of fire detection and extinguishment, and, by a system 
of instruction and thorough discipline, brought the department to a very high state 
of efficiency. All the important rules and regulations now in force in the depart¬ 
ment were adopted in the years from 1867 to 1870, and during those years the 
annual losses by fire in the city of New York were reduced from $6,000,000 to 
$1,500,000. General Shaler was also one of the organizers of the National Rifle 
Association, and an incorporator of the Army and Navy Club. He is also a 
member of the Union League Club, the New York Historical Society, the American 
Geographical Society, the American Museum of Natural History, the General Society 
of Mechanics and Tradesmen, and many other charitable, benevolent and social 
organizations. 




JAMES JOURDAN, 


M 


AJOR-GENERAL commanding the Second Division of the National Guard 
of the State of New York, began his military career at the age of twenty- 
one years by enlisting, May 14, 1853, i n Company A, Fourteenth Regiment New 
York State National Guard, then one of the superior military organizations of the 
State. The next year found him a Sergeant in the same company, and four years 
afterward, on April 19, 1858, he was promoted to be Adjutant, holding that position 
until April 14, 1861, when he was promoted to be Major. April 23, 1861, a few 
days after fire was opened upon Fort Sumter, Major Jourdan was mustered into the 
United States service with his regiment by Brigadier-General Irwin McDowell, at 
Washington, for three years or the war. He remained with the Fourteenth till 

December 24, 1861, when he was made Lieutenant-Colonel of the Fifty-sixth 

Regiment New York Volunteers. This position he held till September 14, 1862, 
when he was promoted to the Colonelcy of the One Hundred and Fifty-eighth 
New York Volunteers. January 1, 1863, he was assigned by Major-General John 
G. Foster to the command of the First Brigade, Second Division, Eighteenth Army 
Corps. About this time his promotion to the full grade of Brigadier-General was 
repeatedly urged by Generals Foster, Butler, Peck, Naglee, Pratt and Palmer, and 
President Lincoln’s promise was received that the first vacancy in that grade should 
be filled by Colonel Jourdan. Early in September, 1864, Colonel Jourdan was 

transferred with his brigade to re-enforce the Army of the James at Bermuda 

Hundred, Virginia, where he participated in the passage of the James river below 
Dutch Gap in the face of the enemy, subsequently participating also in the attack 
and capture of Fort Harrison and the enemy’s first lines in front of Richmond. 
He took an active part in the conflicts at Chapin’s Farm and Newmarket Road, 
and commanded the troops that repulsed the attacks on Signal Hill and Spring 

Hill. September 29, 1864, Colonel Jourdan was brevetted Brigadier-General of 

United States Volunteers, and was assigned to duty by the Secretary of War in 
accordance with his brevet rank. This being the first promotion made by President 
Lincoln under the Act of Congress authorizing promotion of volunteer officers, by 
brevet, he thus became the ranking Brigadier-General of United States Volunteers. 

[ * 9 ? ] 

















JAMES JOURDAN. 


199 


October 1, 1864, he was assigned, on the battle-field, by Major-General Weitzel, to 
the command of the First Division of the Eighteenth Army Corps, relieving Major- 
General Geo. H. Stannard, who fell severely wounded, having lost an arm in 
repulsing an attack of the enemy in front of Richmond. By orders from the 
head-quarters of the Eighteenth Army Corps, General Jourdan was designated, in 
October, 1864, as engineer in charge of the reconstruction of Fort Harrison and the 
outlying works in the field in front of Richmond, and on the north bank of the 
James. April 15, 1865, he was promoted to the rank of Brevet Major-General 
United States Volunteers. Among the engagements participated in by General 
Jourdan are the following: Bull Run, Williamsburg, the siege of Yorktown, the 
operations on Warwick Creek, Virginia, the passage of the Chickahominy, the 
battles of Seven Pines, Pair Oaks and White Oak Swamp, the defense of the 
Chickahominy bridges against the passage of that river by General Stonewall 
Jackson’s corps, the battles at Savage Station, Glendale Church and Malvern Hill, 
and nearly all the reconnaisances made by orders from the head-quarters of the 
F'ourth Army Corps during the Peninsula campaign. He was also engaged, as 
Brigade and District Commander, in all the operations in North Carolina from 
January 1, 1863, to July, 1S64, including the passage of the Neuse river, the attack 
on the enemy at Deep Creek and at Jacksonville, the relief of Newbern, the attack 
on Kingston, the cavalry raid across New river, the reconnaisance of F"ort Fisher 
and its outlying works and approaches from land and sea, the reconnaisance across 
Masonbera Sound, the approaches to Wilmington and Fort Fisher, in the war vessel 
Brittania, to draw the fire and thus determine the location and range of the enemy’s 
guns, the engagement at Sandy Ridge, the attack and capture of cavalry at White 
Oak Creek, the capture of cavalry and baggage stores at Big Northeast Swamp, 
the raid on the coast from the sea below Swansboro, and the conflict at Newport 
barracks, and other minor operations. 

In the latter part of March, 1865, General Jourdan’s constitution having been 
undermined by hard campaigning, he resigned his commission and was mustered 
out of the United States service. 

General Jourdan resumed his connection with the State Militia, August 17, 
1866, being then elected Colonel of the Thirteenth Regiment, New York State 
National Guard, a position which he held till June 8, 1869, when he resigned. 
January 27, 1872, he was re-elected Colonel of the Thirteenth, and retained the 
command until promoted to be Brigadier-General of the Fifth Brigade, Second 
Division, New York State National Guard. Upon the death of Major-General 
Thomas S. Dakin, commanding the Second Division, General Jourdan was promoted 
to the command of the division, with the rank of Major-General, March 10, 1880. 


200 


JAMES JOURDAN. 


General Jourdan has been a civil official in the city of Brooklyn since 1866, 
at which time he was appointed City Assessor by Mayor Alfred M. Wood, to 
fill an unexpired term. In the spring- of 1869, soon after General Grant became 
President, he selected General Jourdan as Assessor of United States Internal 
Revenue for the District comprising the counties of Kings, Queens, Suffolk and 
Richmond. For the three years and over that General Jourdan filled this posi¬ 
tion, he carried on a vigorous warfare against the illicit whisky distilleries in 
his district, and left them demoralized and wrecked when he resigned in July, 
1872. General Jourdan left the Federal civil service to accept the position of 
President of the Department of Police and Excise of the city of Brooklyn, 
becoming by virtue of the office also President of the Board of Health. With 
the exception of seven months, he has served continuously as President of the 
Department of Police and Excise since 1872, having been nominated for the posi¬ 
tion by Mayors of opposing politics, and, until recently, confirmed by mixed Boards 
of Aldermen. His latest appointment as Commissioner of Police and Excise was 
received at the hands of Mayor Seth Low, February 1, 1882. The positions, 
official and otherwise, held by General Jourdan at the present time are: Major- 
General Second Division, New York State National Guard; Commissioner of 
Police and President of the Board of Excise of the city of Brooklyn ; President 
of the Coney Island and Brooklyn Railroad Company ; Vice-President of the Fulton 
Municipal Gas Company, and officer and director of several other corporations. 

General Jourdan is of medium height, about fifty years of age, of a well-knit, 
muscular frame, nervously energetic in action, and rapid and resolute in manner 
and speech. In politics he is a Republican of the most pronounced type. 


JOSEPH 


B. CARR, 


ft AJOR-GENERAL commanding the Third Division, National Guard, State 
of New York, is at present Secretary of State. His biography will be 
found on page 219 in this volume of The Public Service of the State of 
New York. 


WILLIAM FINDLAY 



IV /TAJOR-GENERAL commanding the Fourth Division of the National Guard of 
the State of New York, was born in Forks township, Northampton county, 
Pennsylvania, March 1, 1820. He is descended from Joseph Rogers, who emi¬ 
grated to America from Ireland and settled in Philadelphia in 1786. His father 

Thomas J. Rogers, who was six years old when Joseph Rogers emigrated to this 

country, settled in Easton; Pennsylvania, where for many years he published the Dela¬ 
ware Democrat and Easton Gazette. He served several terms in Congress, was Naval 
Officer of Philadelphia, and an officer in the war of 1812. Upon the death of 
his father, in 1832, William Findlay Rogers, then twelve years of age, was thrown 
entirely upon his own resources. He first entered the office of the Easton 

JV/iig as a printer’s apprentice, and afterward secured a situation in the office of 

the Philadelphia Enquirer , where he remained until 1846, when he removed to 

Buffalo and engaged in the same business until the breaking out of the War of 

the Rebellion. 

General Rogers’ military history begins in 1846, when he became a member 
of Company “ D,” a famous independent organization in the city of Buffalo, 
since which time he has been connected with the militia and National Guard of 
this State, passing through all the grades of private, non-commissioned officer, 

Second Lieutenant, First Lieutenant, Adjutant, Captain, Colonel, Brigadier-General 

and Major-General. 


202 


WILLIAM FINDLAY ROGERS. 


General Rogers was Captain of Company “ C,” Seventy-fourth Regiment, New 
York State Militia, when the war broke out, and it was largely due to his influence 
and exertions that this company, with three others from the same regiment, promptly 
volunteered to assist the government in putting down the rebellion. These four com¬ 
panies, and six others recruited in Buffalo, were organized at Elmira as the 
Twenty-first New York Volunteers, and mustered into the United States service for 
the term of two years. General Rogers was commissioned Captain of Company “ C ” 
of this regiment, May 9, 1861, and on the 16th of May he was promoted to be 
Colonel of the same regiment. Colonel Rogers left Elmira with his regiment on the 
18th of June, and reached Washington on the 19th, where he remained until July 
14, when he was ordered to Fort Runyon, then the principal defense of the Long 
Bridge. The Twenty-first was subsequently assigned to the First Corps, under 
General McDowell, participating in the battles of Rappahannock Station, Sulphur 
Springs, and Groveton or Chantilly, in the second battle of Bull Run, in the 
battles of South Mountain, Antietam and Fredericksburg; and, on the 9th of 
January, 1863, was detached from the First Corps and ordered to Aquia Creek, 
as provost guard, remaining there until the expiration of its term of enlistment, 
when it returned to Buffalo and was mustered out on the 19th of May, 1863. Upon 
his return home Colonel Rogers was appointed Commissioner of Enrollment, and 
subsequently Provost Marshal of the Thirtieth District of New York. He was 
tendered and accepted the command of the Seventy-fourth Regiment, National Guard 
State of New York; and was promoted to be Brigadier-General in 1865, and to 
be Major-General January 21, 1879. He is also Brevet Brigadier-General of United 
States Volunteers. 

General Rogers was City Auditor of Buffalo in 1865, City Comptroller in 
1866 and 1867, and Mayor in 1868 and 1869. He was largely instrumental in 
the establishment and development of the magnificent system of Public Parks in 
the city of Buffalo, first as ex-officio Commissioner, and afterward as Secretary, which 
latter position he now holds. He has also served as Secretary and Treasurer of 
the Board of Managers of the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane since the 
establishment of that institution. He has been Department Commander of the 
Grand Army of the Republic, and President of the National Guard Association 
of this State. He is also a Trustee of the Soldiers and Sailors’ Home, at Bath, 
New York, and delivered the address at its dedication in January, 1879. General 
Rogers is an active and prominent Mason, and has been Master, High Priest 
and Eminent Commander. 


WILLIAM GREENE WARD, 


T 3 RIGADIER-GENERAL commanding the First Brigade of the National 
Guard of the State of New York, is a resident of New York city, where 
he was born July 20, 1832. He is a descendant of Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel 
Ward, of the Second Rhode Island Continental Line, through his youngest son, 
W illiam G. Ward, Senior, and Samuel Ward, a former Governor of the same State. 
General Ward received his education at a private school, and at Columbia College, 
graduating from the latter institution in 1851 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. 

General Ward’s military history dates from March 24, 1854, when he enlisted 
as a private in Company “ H,” of the Twelfth Infantry of the National Guard of 
the State of New York. During his military career he has passed through all 
grades of the service, serving as Corporal, Sergeant and Second Lieutenant in 1855, 
as Adjutant in 1856, Captain in 1859, Major and Lieutenant-Colonel in i860, and as 
Colonel in 1862. On the 24th of December, 1866, he received his commission as 
Brigadier-General. 

General Ward saw eleven months of active service with the Twelfth Regiment 
of the National Guard of the State of New York, during the campaigns of 1861, 
1862 and 1863. He was taken prisoner at Harper’s Ferry on the nth of Septem¬ 
ber, 1862, and exchanged June 12, 1863. He has never been actively identified 
with any political party. As a business man, General Ward was formerly a banker 
and broker, but is now Cashier in the office of the Treasurer of the Northern Pacific 
Railroad Company. 


[ 203 ] 


LOUIS FITZGERALD, 

B RIGADIER-GENERAL commanding the Second Brigade, National Guard, 
State of New York, was born in New York city May 31, 1838. His military 
history began in 1857, when he joined the Third Company of the Seventh Regiment. 
He was shortly afterward promoted to be Corporal, and then Sergeant, and in 1861 
he marched with the Seventh to the defense of the National Capital. After the 
return of the regiment to New York, he entered the United States service as First 
Lieutenant in Ellsworth’s Zouaves, and was promoted to be Captain for gallantry 
at the first battle of Bull Run, as stated in orders. After the disbandment of the 
“Zouaves” he was again commissioned First Lieutenant in the Fortieth New York 
Volunteers, and for gallantry in the battle of Fair Oaks, as stated in orders, was 

promoted to be Captain. During the “ Peninsula ” campaign he served as Provost 

Marshal, and as Aide-de-Camp to the gallant General Philip Kearney, and is one 

of the few officers entitled to wear the “ Kearney Cross.” After the death of that 
great soldier, Captain Fitzgerald served as Aide-de-Camp to General D. B. Birney, 
commanding the Third Corps, and to General J. G. Foster, commanding the Eight¬ 
eenth Corps, accompanying the latter officer in all the campaigns in North and 

South Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee. In 1864 he was promoted to be Major, 
and subsequently to be Lieutenant-Colonel of the Pdrst Missouri. Colonel Fitzgerald 
served with distinction in many departments, and his gallantry was conspicuous in 
the many battles and skirmishes in which he was engaged. He was wounded at 
Bull Run, Williamsburg and Fair Oaks, and was blown up by torpedoes on the 
James river, in the gun-boat Hiram Barney. At the close of the war he was 
brevetted Lieutenant-Colonel in the National Guard of this State, “ for faithful and 
meritorious services during the war.” He was immediately elected First Lieutenant 
of Company “ E ” of his old regiment, and shortly afterward was elected Adjutant. 
In 1875 he was elected Lieutenant-Colonel of the same regiment, which position 
he resigned in January, 1881. On March 28, 1882, he was appointed Brigadier- 
General. General Fitzgerald is a graduate of the College of New York, and received 
the degree of Master of Arts from the College of New Jersey. He was formerly 
a merchant, and is now President of the Mercantile Trust Company. 

[204 j 

























CHRISTIAN T. CHRISTENSEN, 


T 2 )RIGADIER-GENERAL commanding the Third Brigade of the National Guard 
of the State of New York, was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, January 26, 
1832, and is of pure Danish descent. He was educated at the “ Efterslaegt ” school, 
in Copenhagen, until fourteen years old, when he became a clerk in a dry goods 
store in Elsinore, Denmark, where he remained until 1850. He then came to 
America, and until 1855 was a book-keeper with Davis & Henriques, leading wine 
importers of New York city. From 1855 to ^ ie was a partner in the firm of 

Pepoon, Nazro & Co., note brokers. P'rom 1861 to the close of the war he was a 
volunteer officer in the United States service. From the close of the war until 

1877 he was a member of the firm of B. G. Arnold & Co., coffee importers, New 
York city, and from 1877 to 1878 he was the Manager of the Nevada Bank at San 
Francisco and New York. In 1880 he was Treasurer of the Mining Trust Company 
of New York, and since January, 1881, he has been the Manager of the banking- 
house of Drexel, Morgan & Co., in the city of New York. 

General Christensen became a citizen of the United States at the close of the 
War of the Rebellion, but he has never held any political office in his adopted 
country. He has, however, held many offices of high honor and trust. From 
1869 to 1873 he represented his native country in New York city as Consul 
and Acting Charge d’ Affaires. He was a Director of the American Exchange 
National Bank of New York from 1875 to 1881. He is at present a member of 
the Board of Park Commissioners of Brooklyn, a Director of the Brooklyn Phil¬ 
harmonic Society, Treasurer of the Brooklyn Revenue Reform Club, a Director of 
the Brooklyn City Mission and Tract Society, Clerk of Plymouth Church, member 
of the Executive Committee of the American Missionary Association, and a 
member of various other charitable and benevolent organizations. 

But General Christensen’s best services were rendered the Republic during 
the War of the Rebellion, in which he bore an active and conspicuous part, 
although he was not at that time a citizen of the United States. He entered 
the service April 23, 1861, as First Lieutenant, Company “I,” First New York 
Volunteers, and participated in the battle of Big Bethel, June 10, 1861. In October 

[205] 


206 


CHRISTIAN T. CHRISTENSEN. 


of the same year he was promoted to be Captain in the same regiment, and in 
June, 1862, he received the appointment of Assistant-Adjutant-General, on the Staff 
of Major-General Wool, United States Army, with the rank of Major. In April, 
1864, he became Chief of Staff to Major-General Canby, commanding the Military 
Division of West Mississippi, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and was present 
at the siege and storming of the defenses of Mobile. July 23, 1865, he was 
honorably discharged from the service with brevets of Colonel and Brigadier-Gen¬ 
eral, United States Volunteers. He was commissioned Major of the Thirteenth 
Regiment, National Guard, State of New York, in the summer of 1879, an d in 
the winter of 1880 was promoted to be Lieutenant-Colonel in the same regiment. 
July 22, 1880, he was commissioned Brigadier-General commanding the Fifth (now 
the Third) Brigade, National Guard, State of New York. 

General Christensen was created a Knight of the Order of Dannebrog by the 
King of Denmark, in 1868, and in 1872 he was decorated with the Silver Cross 
of the Order. 


WILLIAM H. BROWNELL, 

B RIGADIER-GENERAL commanding the Fourth Brigade of the National 
Guard of the State of New York, resides in the city of Brooklyn, where 
he was born May 31, 1843. He is °f New England parentage, and traces his 

ancestry back to the settlement of Rhode Island by Roger Williams. Educated 
in the public schools of Brooklyn, and by private tutor, he early engaged in 
mercantile pursuits, and is now an extensive dealer in art materials. He is a 
Republican in politics, but has no aspirations for political office. His military 
history dates from October 12, 1869, when he enlisted as a private in the Forty- 
seventh Regiment, National Guard, State of New- York. He was promoted, 
through the various grades of non-commissioned officer, to be Second Lieutenant, 
May 13, 1873; First Lieutenant, January 20, 1874; Captain, October 10, 1874; 

Major, December 23, 1874; Lieutenant-Colonel, December 29, 1875, and Colonel, 
September 5, 1877. His commission as Brigadier-General is dated September 5, 
1881. General Brownell is a frequent contributor to the Army and Navy Journal. 
In 1879 h e published a book entitled “Street Riot Formation.” He is, also, 
the inventor of an apparatus for demonstrating Upton’s infantry tactics. 


T. ELLERY LORD, 


~T~)RIGAD 1 ER-GENERAL commanding the Fifth Brigade of the National Guard 
^ of the State of New York, is a native of Danby, Tompkins county, New 
York, where he was born December 18, 1841. He is of American parentage, but 
of English descent. His father’s family came from England and settled in Lyme, 
Connecticut, in 1632, and his mother’s family came from the same country and 

settled in Pennsylvania about the year 1700. General Lord’s education was 

obtained in Albany, at Sand Lake, and at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 
in Troy, New York. 

On the breaking out of the War of the Rebellion he entered the United 

States service, April 19, 1861, as Second Lieutenant in the Third New York 

Volunteers; was promoted, through the different grades, to Brevet Brigadier- 
General, and mustered out September 18, 1865, at the close of the war. He 
participated in the first battle of the war, at Big Bethel, June 10, 1861, in the 
several battles in Charleston Harbor in 1863, and about Petersburg and Richmond 
in 1864-65, and was present at the surrender of Lee’s Army at Appomattox 

Court House. General Lord resides in the city of Albany, where he is engaged 
in business as a manufacturer and wholesale dealer in lumber. 


1207 ] 


» 


SYLVESTER DERING, 


B RIGADIER-GENERAL commanding the Sixth Brigade of the National Guard 
of the State of New York, was born in the city of New York, March 12, 
1838. He is a son of Nicoll Havens Dering, M. D., and of Frances Huntington 
Dering, and is of Anglo-Saxon origin, the family having come originally from 
“Surrenden Dering” Ashford, Kent, England, where some members of the family 
still reside. The first member of the family who came to America was Henry 
Dering, who settled in Boston, Massachusetts, about the year 1660. He was a 
merchant in that city for many years, and was succeeded in business by his son 
Henry and his grandson Thomas Dering, who afterward removed with his family 
to Shelter Island, Suffolk county, New York. Sylvester Dering, son of Thomas 
Dering, and grandfather of the present Sylvester Dering, held a commission as 
Brigadier-General in the New York State Militia as early as 1786. General 

Dering’s education was obtained at the Academy in Utica, and at the Yale 
Scientific School in New Haven, Connecticut, where he was fitted for a civil 
engineer. In i860 he entered the Albany Law School, where he graduated, and 
was admitted to practice as an attorney and counselor, February 28, 1862. He 

practiced his profession from 1862 to 1866, when he engaged in business as a 
dealer in and manufacturer of lumber. General Dering is a Democrat in politics, 
but never held any political office except that of Supervisor of the Third ward 
of the city of Utica in 1863. 

His military history* began January 12, 1862, when he was commissioned Adju¬ 
tant of the Forty-fifth Regiment, Twenty-first Brigade, Sixth Division of the National 
Guard. May 12, 1863, he was promoted to be Brigadier-General of the Twenty- 

first Brigade, Sixth Division. This commission he still holds, having in the 

meantime commanded the Twenty-first, the Fourth, and the Sixth Brigades. He 
is now the ranking Brigadier-General in the service of the State. He resides in 
Utica. 


[ 208 1 














0 


DWIGHT H. BRUCE, 

ORIGADIER-GENERAL commanding the Seventh Brigade of the National 
Guard of the State of New York, was born June 21, 1834, at Lenox, 

Madison county, New York. He is of New England parentage, of mingled Scotch 
and Dutch descent. The New England branch of the family trace their ancestry 
back to the Mayflower. General Bruce’s great-grandfather, on the paternal side, 
was a member of the famous “ Boston Tea Party,” in 1773, and a lineal descend¬ 
ant of Robert Bruce of Scotland. 

General Bruce received a thorough academic education, and early in life 
became a journalist, which business he has since followed, with brief interruptions. 
He is now one of the editors and also one of the proprietors, under the firm 
name of Truair, Smith & Bruce, of the Syracuse Journal. He is a Republican 
in politics, and has always been an active member of the party, especially during 
the war. He organized the second Torch-Light Club in the State, at Oswego, 
in i860. From 1863 to 1873 he was Secretary of the Republican General Com¬ 
mittee of Onondaga county. He has several times been a delegate to Republican 
State Conventions, and for five years was Postmaster at Syracuse, where he resides. 
He has also held various other local, political and civil offices. General Bruce 
has been identified with the National Guard of the State since 1851. He first 
enlisted as a private, was afterward promoted to be Division Paymaster, then to 
be Division Engineer, and was Inspector of Rifle Practice of the Fifty-first Regi¬ 
ment when commissioned Brigadier-General, in July, 1880. 

When the War of the Rebellion broke out General Bruce was offered the 
command of a regiment, but conscientiously believing that he could render the 
Republic better service at home than in the field, he declined the offer, and during 
the war devoted much of his time and energies to the raising and fitting out of 
regiments and the organization of Union Leagues throughout Central New York. 

27 


12091 


JOHN CARD GRAVES, 


B RIGADIER-GENERAL commanding the Eighth Brigade of the National 
Guard of the State of New York, was born in Herkimer, New York, 

November 18, 1839. His grandfather, Hon. John Graves, was one of the original 

settlers of the town of Russia, in Herkimer county, and was Member of Assembly 
in 1812-13 and in 1824, and Sheriff in 1828. His father, Hon. Ezra Graves, is a 
lawyer in Herkimer, where' he has practiced his profession for over half a century. 
He was a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1867-8, Inspector of State 
Prisons in 1872, and County Judge three terms. John C. Graves obtained his edu¬ 
cation in the common schools, at Fairfield Academy, and at Hamilton College, where 
he graduated in the class of 1862. He immediately entered the office of his father 
as a law student, and was admitted to the Bar in December, 1862. He remained 
with his father as a partner until 1864, when he engaged in the practice of his 

profession in Buffalo. In 1869 he took charge of the fire business of the Buffalo 

Fire and Marine Insurance Company, and closed up the business of the company 
after its failure, caused by the great Chicago fire in 1871. In 1875 he was 
appointed Clerk of the Superior Court of Buffalo, which position he still holds. 

General Graves’ military career began in 1865, when he was commissioned 
Major of the Eighty-first Regiment, National Guard, State of New York. In 
1878 he was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel of the Sixty-fifth Regiment, and the 
year following he was promoted to be Colonel of the same regiment. In March, 
1881, he was again promoted to be Brigadier-General of the Fourteenth, now the 
Eighth, Brigade of the National Guard. General Graves is an enthusiastic Mason, 
and has worked his way through nearly all the grades of that ancient order. He is 
a member of Washington Lodge, No. 240, and has been Master of the Lodge 
two years. He is a member of Keystone Chapter, of which he has been High 
Priest, and of the Hugh De Payn Commandery, in which he is Captain General. 
He also belongs to the Palmoni Council, A. and A. rite, of which he is presiding 
officer, and to the Rochester Consistory, thirty-second degree. He also held the 
office of District Deputy Grand Master for three years, and is now Senior Grand 
Deacon of the Grand Lodge of the State of New York. 

[210] 






THE 

ARMS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, 

AS RE-ESTABLISHED BY CHAPTER 190 OF THE LAWS OF 1882, 
AND REQUIRED TO BE USED ON THE SEALS OF ALL 
THE PUBLIC OFFICES AT THE CAPITAL 
FROM THIS DATE. 






ARMS AND SEALS OF THE STATE. 


By HENRY A. HOMES, LL. D. 


Jj/jr HE devices for the arms and seals of New York, previous to its being 
VE constituted an independent State in the year 1777, have been various. 
There were, first, as early as 1624, the arms on the seal of New Netherland, 
a shield bearing a beaver, surmounted by a coronet. Next came, under 
Charles II, the seal for the Duke of York in 1664, bearing the arms of the House 
of Stuart. The third seal was sent over by James II, August 14, 1687, having 
a shield with a rising sun over a “ landskip ” of land and sea. Of this seal no 
impression is known. The fourth seal was the one introduced when the govern¬ 
ment of New York was united with that of New England under Governor Andros. 
Its use lasted less than eight months, from August, 1688, to April, 1689. It had 
on the obverse the figure of the Sovereign standing, and an Englishman and an 
Indian kneeling before him. This was the first of that peculiar type. The fifth, 
in force from May 31, 1690, contained the figures of William and Mary standing, 
but the place of the kneeling Englishman in the preceding seal was supplied by 
a kneeling Indian female. The sixth seal contained Queen Anne standing; and 
this and all the seals of the successive Sovereigns of the House of Hanover down 
to the Revolution of 1776, contained in like manner standing figures of the Sover¬ 
eign and the kneeling Indians, though they differed from each other slightly in some 
particulars. The reverse of all these seals bore the royal arms of Great Britain. 

As soon as the Constitution of the new State had been adopted in 1777, and 

the new government was organized, the need was felt of providing by law a symbol 

by which the State should be known and recognized in its dignity and authority 

by all men. This symbol, designed to be its arms, would be placed upon its 

standards, its seals, its medals and its public buildings. For this purpose, with the 
aid of one committee of the Convention, appointed April 15, 1777, composed of 
Judges Hobart, Jay and Morris, and of another composed of Chancellor Livingston 
and Governor G. Clinton, appointed September 10 of the same year, a State seal 

was first adopted December 31, 1777, which contained the shield of the present 

[211 J 


212 


ARMS AND SEALS OF THE STATE. 


arms; and on March 1 6 , 1778, the arms complete, including this same seal as the 
shield, were adopted. No written description of the device as a whole has any¬ 
where been found, although several laws, enacted in various years down to the year 
1880, affirm the existence of one in the office of the Secretary of State. It has 
been necessary, therefore, to attempt to reconstruct the arms from early specimens, 
as found in part upon impressions of the seal of 1777, on engraved military and 
civil commissions of 1778, on a flag of Colonel Gansevoort’s regiment of 1779, and 
on the painting which was suspended over Governor Clinton’s pew in St. Paul’s 
chapel, New York city, in 1785. 

Owing to the absence of this written description of the arms, one variation 
after another from the original arms was tolerated during the last century, till the 
time came when the varying representations of them in official use were so numer¬ 
ous that no one seemed to be sure of any trait belonging to them, unless that 
the motto was Excelsior. Requests which were made for the arms of all the 
States for display at the celebration of the national centennial in 1876 led to leg¬ 
islative action on the subject in 1875, anc I a design of the arms was made for 
Philadelphia with the aid of the St. Paul’s chapel painting and a seal made in 1798. 
After public attention had been directed to the three other and earlier sources of 
information just mentioned, the Legislature in 1880 appointed a commission of three, 
of which Governor Cornell was chairman and Secretary Carr and Comptroller Wads¬ 
worth the other members, to report in 1881 an exact description of the original 
arms, constructed from these specimens, and also the measures deemed necessary to 
be adopted to perpetuate the use of the arms without variation in the departments 
and public offices of the State. It was also one part of their duty to report on the 
expediency of requiring all departments, including that of the Governor, and the 
courts, to use no other device on their seals, their letter-heads, and on the public 
documents than the State arms, with a legend surrounding them, containing the 
name of the office or court making use of them. A custom had grown up that 
some of the State departments did not have the arms on their seals, but varying 
devices which had no relation of resemblance to the arms of the State. 

The following is the description of the arms, as approved by the commission, 
expressed in popular language and free from scientific technicalities, yet sufficiently 
exact to allow the arms to be constructed from it. It was embodied in a law 
enacted by the Legislature of 1882. 

Arms of the State of New York. 

Shield. — At the base of the shield, there is a shore of land like a meadow 
fringed with shrubbery; beyond, there is an expanse of water like a river, smooth 
and calm. Upon the water a ship and sloop are seen advancing toward each other. 













































































FAC SIMILE OF THE ARMS 

On a Military Commission of June 25.1778 



FAC SIMILE OF THE ARMS 

On a Regimental Flag of 1778. 



FAC SIMILE OF THE ARMS 

In St Paul's Chapel, New York City. 1785. 


THE ARMS RESTORED 
For the action of the Legislature 























ARMS AND SEALS OF THE STATE. 


213 


Beyond the water three mountains appear, the central one of which is the most 
elevated. Behind and above the mountains, seven-eighths of the body of the sun is 
seen, like a human face, with a great effulgence of golden rays. A blue sky reaches 
to the top of the shield. 

Crest. — An eagle, with its head and the front of its body turned to the right 
of the shield, stands upon a two-thirds of a globe, with parallels of latitude and lines 
of longitude; the western coast of Europe and the eastern coast of the New World 
are outlined upon it. The globe rests upon the usual wreath of blue and gold. 

Supporters. — The figure of Liberty stands upon the right of the shield and is 
completely dressed in a robe of gold, reaching to the ankles, with no belt, but lapels 
to the waist, and a mantle of crimson falling from the shoulders behind, and appear¬ 
ing in front on her right as low down as the bottom of the robe. The feet have 
sandals upon them, laced with red bands. The face and neck, the hands and 
forearm only are nude. Close to her left foot, and upon the scroll on which she 
stands, there is a royal crown which is overturned. In her right hand, which hangs 

by her side, she holds upright a staff, one end of which rests upon the scroll, and 

the other end, extending above her head, supports a liberty-cap of neutral tint upon 
it; and with her left hand she supports the shield with firmness and vigilance. 

On the left of the shield stands the figure of Justice, with a robe and mantle 
similar in shape and color to those worn by Liberty. The mantle is extended 

behind to the left in much the same manner. In her left hand, at the level of 

her waist, she holds an even balance, which hangs away from the left of her body. 
In her right hand she holds a naked sword, with the point upward, but her arm 
down, the elbow only touching the shield. Her eyes are blindfolded with a white 
band of cloth, but she seems intently listening to reach the truth. The face, neck, 
hands and forearm only are exposed. Her feet have sandals, laced with red bands. 

Motto. — The word “Excelsior,” painted upon a white scroll beneath the shield, 
upon the extended ends of which stand the supporters Liberty and Justice. 

The arms, in accordance with the preceding description, are represented in the 
engraving in this work which has the title “Arms proposed for the action of the 
Legislature,” although it is intended to secure during the present year a drawing 
more heraldically exact and artistic, for the standard paintings and dies. 

Much value is to be attached to the various symbols embodied in the arms 
of the State of New York on account of their historical relations and their remark¬ 
able significance. In the shield, I have suggested that the full sun represents the 
badge of the Duke of York, afterward Edward IV, adopted by him as such on 
account of a prodigy, which was the appearance in the heavens, on the morning 
of the battle of Mortimer’s Cross in 1461, of three suns at once which united 


214 


ARMS AND SEALS OF THE STATE. 


afterward in one. This phenomenon was regarded as an omen of success, and 
thereafter for a long period a full sun was put upon the gold coin of the realm. 
The same sun was put upon the seal of the Colony of New York in 1687, by 
James II, formerly Duke of York, when it became necessary to have a new seal. 

This sun on our arms is an emblem, now more than four hundred years old, which 

\ 

sets forth the old name of York. The mountains on our shield, with the river, 
on which are floating a sloop and a barque, represent the Hudson river with its 
commerce, breaking through a chasm of the Appalachian chain and receiving tidal 
waters one hundred and eighty miles from the ocean, which is the greatest geo¬ 
graphical feature of the Atlantic coast. The land at the base of the shield, which 
implies that the water represents a river, was upon both the seal of 1777 and the 
commissions of 1778. The two symbols combined, the full sun and the Hudson 
river with its mountains, betoken the name and words New York. 

Liberty and Justice had been proposed to the Continental Congress in 1776, 
by Adams, Franklin and Jefferson, as a portion of the arms of the United States, 
but for some reason were not adopted. The commission which accepted these 
inspiring figures for the State of New York, also placed at the foot of Liberty 
an overturned crown. This last symbol had disappeared from all the representa¬ 
tions of our arms in use for more than ninety years, though our State stands 
alone in declaring, by means of it, a distinct abandonment of monarchical govern¬ 
ment, and, combined with the figure of Liberty, the establishment instead thereof 
of government by the People and for the People. Conjoined with the emblem 
of Liberty, they added Justice as the second of the two chief pillars of the State. 

The crest on its demi-globe has an outline of the Old and New Worlds, and 
an eagle stands over it with its head turned westward. New York preceded in 
time the United States and all other States of the Union in employing the eagle 
as a portion of its device of arms. This symbol of the eagle and the New World 
was meant to recall a line of Bishop Berkeley’s Ode on America, written about the 
year 1726,—“Westward the course of empire takes its way.” New York was 
already seen to be commercially and strategically, in the words of Adam Smith in 
1776, “the seat of the empire;” and in 1784, Washington, in response to an address 
of the common council of New York city, directly limits the thought in saying 
“your State, at present the seat of the empire.” 

The State has enacted, in the new law, that henceforth, when the Legislature 
is in session, the standard of the State of New York shall float on the Capitol 
along with the flag of the United States. It is certain in the future that arms' of 
historical significance and moral beauty like those of the State of New York will 
not be superseded by inferior emblems, but by universal official use will be known 
and honored by all the millions of her citizens. 






































































































































































THE STATE HOUSE 











































































































































































THE SECRETARY OF STATE. 


By JOSEPH B. CARR 


5 iTHE Directors of the West India Company, upon establishing a permanent 
settlement in New Netherland, under the charter of 1621, appointed a 
Secretary for the Province, to hold office during their pleasure. The duties of 
this office were at first performed by one person, acting at the same time as 
Treasurer and Book-keeper. This was the Opper Koopman , and every action of the 
Director and Council, every transaction between Government and private parties, 
or between two private parties, had to be recorded by him. He was the Clerk 

of the Courts of high and low jurisdiction, and continued as such until 1653, when 

a municipal court of low jurisdiction was established in the city of Amsterdam by 
the new charter then given it. The immigration of English-speaking people, who 
were driven from the New England Colonies by religious persecution, increased 
in New Netherland so rapidly that several completely English settlements were 

established on Long Island, and the Director-General found it necessary to appoint 

an English Secretary, whose services were made use of in negotiations with the 
English neighbors. Both Secretaries were members of the Director’s Council. In 
the dissensions which arose between the Government and its English subjects on 
Long Island, however, the English Secretary took a part which was unbecoming 
one in his official position, and he was, therefore, dismissed in 1654, and no new 
appointment was made. 

The successor of the Dutch Secretary, under English rule, discharged the same 
duties, but had not at first quite the same powers; he was only Clerk of the 
Council until 1670, when the then incumbent, Mathias Nichols, was made a member 
of the Council. Secretaries of the Province were also called Secretaries to the 
Crown or to the Government of New York. As no law or rule existed giving 
to the Secretary ex-officio a seat in the Council, there were Secretaries of the 
Province who had only clerical duties to perform, and others who sat with the 
Council in its advisory, legislative and judicial capacity. When the Secretary was a 
member of the Council, he would either appoint a Deputy, who became the Clerk 

[ 2X5 ] 


2 r 6 


THE SECRETARY OF STATE. 


of the Council, or farm out his duties as Matthew Clarkson did in 1691. During 
the existence of the Court of Assize, which had limited legislative powers, and was 
at the same time the highest Court of the Province (1665-1684), the Secretary 
had then duties of a tri-fold character — administrative, legislative and judicial — to 
perform ; but not only that, he and his deputies were allowed to appear before the 
Court as attorneys for private parties. Why such extensive authority was given is 
not clear, unless it was that the then prevalent cumulation of offices sanctioned the 
custom. It is certain, however, that the connection of the Provincial Secretary with 
the Courts, especially his appointment to the Registry of the Prerogative Court, led 
to scandal under almost every Colonial Administration. The salary paid to the 
Secretary out of the revenues of the Province was small, but the fees accruing 

from his different offices were sufficient to make the position respectable and much 
sought after. 

The first Constitution of this State took cognizance of the Secretary in a 
general way, by directing, after provision had been made for the appointment 
of a Treasurer, that “all officers other than those, who by this Constitution 

are directed to be otherwise appointed, shall be appointed in the following 

manner, to-wit,” etc. (by the Council of Appointment). The first Legislature 

elected under this Constitution,— sitting nearly a year after its adoption, however,— 
recognized the existence of an administrative officer, called the Secretary of State, 
by a law passed March 16, 1778, specifying some of his duties and making him, 
ex-officio, Clerk of the Council of Appointment. This was the beginning of what 
was, in fact, a continuance of the English system of cumulating offices upon 
one officer, but, unlike the English system, it did not carry with it additional 
revenues. It was a cumulation of official duties for the sake of economy, which, 
practiced in every one of the five great administrative departments, has had the 
beneficial result of making the Government of the State of New York an inex¬ 
pensive one, considering the vast interests of her citizens. 

The manner in which, under former acts, the unappropriated and vacant lands 
of the State had been sold and settled was found to be productive of great 
embarrassment, inconvenience, and controversy. The Legislature of 1786, therefore, 
created the Board of Commissioners of the Land Office, “to direct the disposing 
and granting of the unappropriated lands within this State, according to such 
powers and directions as shall, from time to time, be prescribed by the Legis¬ 
lature.” The Secretary of State was made one of the Commissioners and, 
ex-officio, their Secretary. The law of 1805 relieved him of the latter duty by 
making his Deputy, Clerk of the Board. In 1821 the Secretary was made Super¬ 
intendent of the Common Schools in the State, the appropriation bill of that 
year abolishing the office as it had existed up to that time. The duties of this 


THE SECRETARY OF STATE. 


217 


office, however, became so onerous, that in 1854 it was found necessary to reappoint 
a special officer for this purpose. Upon the creation of the Board of State 
Canvassers in 1827 the Secretary was made one of its members, and all the 
clerical work connected with the State canvass is performed in his office. 

The necessity of opening up the western portion of this State, and of obtaining 
better communication with the Great Lakes, led to the establishment of a Canal 
Fund in 1817; and the subsequent completion of the canals rendered necessary the 
institution of the Canal Board. The Secretary was made a member of these 
boards. 

The Constitution of 1846 directed that the Secretary of State and the heads 
of the other departments named should be elected by the people. Since its adoption 
only one important addition has been made to the duties of the Secretary. By 
a statute passed in 1876, a State Board of Audit was organized to hear all 

disputed claims against the State, except such as the law refers to the Canal 
Appraisers, and the Secretary was made one of its members. He is now, by right 
of his office, Commissioner of the Land Office, and of the Canal Fund; member 
of the Canal Board, of the Board of State Canvassers, and of the State Boards of 
Audit, of Equalization of Assessments, and of Charities; a Regent of the University, 
a Custodian of the State Hall, a Trustee of the Capitol and State Hall, of the 
Idiot Asylum, and of Union College. By chapter 86 of the Laws of 1880, he 

is made the Custodian of the Great Seal of the State. In his office are 
deposited the State Archives, in connection with which he has numerous specific 

duties. He has power to administer the oath of office to certain officers of the 
Government, and is by law directed to take charge of the original laws, as 

passed by each Legislature, and to superintend the printing, indexing and distributing 
of the session laws, journals, and all other documents published by the State. 
In his office are filed applications from corporations formed under general acts, 
except banking institutions and insurance companies. He reports annually to the 
Legislature the statistics of crime and pauperism received from the several counties, 
the proceedings of the State Board of Audit, and such other facts and proceedings 
as may be required by law or by either branch of the Legislature. During the 
last several decades the Secretary of State has also been charged with the taking 
of the decennial census of the State, special laws being each time enacted, 

prescribing the modes of taking it. The Secretary appoints a Deputy, who is, 
ex-officio , Clerk of the Commissioners of the Land Office, and authorized to per¬ 
form all the duties of the Secretary except as a member of the various boards 
above named. 


28 


I 


2 I 8 


THE SECRETARY OF STATE. 


SECRETARIES OF THE PROVINCE. 


ISAAC de RASIERES, 

1626-1628. 

ISAAC SWINTON, 

1686-1687. 

JAN VAN REMUND, 

1628-163-. 

JOHN KNIGHT, 

1687-1688. 

ANDRIES HUDDE, 

163 -1638. 

STEPHEN VAN CORTLANDT, 

1688. 

CORNELIS VAN TIENHOVEN, 

1638-1649. 

FREDERICK PHILLIPSE, 

1688. 

ADRIAEN KEYSER, 

1649-1650. 

NICOLAS BAYARD, 

1688-1689. 

JACOB KIP, 

1650-1651. 

JACOB MILBORNE, 

1689-1691. 

CORNELIS VAN TIENHOVEN, 

1651-1652. 

MATHEW CLARKSON, 

1691-1702. 

CAREL VAN BRUGGE, 

1652-1653. 

DANIEL HONAN, 

1702-1703. 

CORNELIS VAN RUYVEN, 

1653-1664. 

GEORGE CLARKE, 

1703-U3C 

MATTHIAS NICOLLS, 

1664-1673. 

FREDERICK MORRIS, 

1736-1738. 

NICOLAS BAYARD, 

1673-1680. 

GEORGE CLARKE, Jr., 

1738-1745. 

JOHN WEST, 

1680-1683. 

JOHN CATHERWOOD, 

1745-1746 

JOHN SPRAGUE, 

1683-1686. 

GEORGE CLARKE, Jr., 

1749-1775. 

SECRETARIES 

OF STATE. 


JOHN MORIN SCOTT, 

1778-1789. 

SAMUEL YOUNG, 

vn 

00 

T 

^T 

00 

.LEWIS ALLAIR SCOTT, 

1789-1793. 

NATHANIEL S. BENTON, 

1845-1847. 

DANIEL HALE, 

1793-1801. 

CHRISTOPHER MORGAN, 

1848-1851. 

THOMAS TILLOTSON, 

1801-1806. 

HENRY S. RANDALL, 

1852-1853. 

ELISHA JENKINS, 

1806-1807. 

ELIAS W. LEAVENWORTH, 

1854-1855. 

THOMAS TILLOTSON, 

1807-1808. 

JOEL T. HEADLEY, 

1856-1857. 

ELISHA JENKINS, 

1808-1810. 

GIDEON J. TUCKER, 

1858-1859. 

DANIEL HALE, 

1810-1811. 

DAVID R. FLOYD JONES, 

1860-1861. 

ELISHA JENKINS, 

1811-1813. 

HORATIO BALLARD, 

1862-1863. 

JACOB R. VAN RENSSELAER, 

1813-1815. 

CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW, 

1864-1865. 

PETER B. PORTER, 

1815-1816. 

FRANCIS C. BARLOW, 

i866-1867. 

ROBERT R. TILLOTSON, 

1816-1817. 

HOMER A. NELSON, 

1868-1871. 

CHARLES D. COOPER, 

1817-1818. 

G. HILTON SCRIBNER, 

1872-1873. 

JOHN VAN NESS YATES, 

1718-1826. 

DIEDRICH WILLERS, Jr., 

1874-1875. 

AZARIAH C. FLAGG, 

1826-1833. 

JOHN BIGELOW, 

1876-1877. 

JOHN A. DIX, 

1833-1839. 

ALLEN C. BEACH, 

1878-1879. 

JOHN C. SPENCER, 

1839-1842. 

JOSEPH B. CARR, 

1880-1883. 
















Hon. JOSEPH B. CARR, 

SECRETARY OF STATE, 

W AS born, of Irish parentage, in Albany, New York, August 16, 1828. He 
received his education in the common schools, and early displayed a taste 
and aptitude for military affairs. Indeed, the history of the public life of General 
Carr, previous to his election to his present office, is essentially a military history, 
brilliant in achievements, and distinguished by high military honors. His military 
career began in 1849, when he became a member of the Troy Republican Guards. 
Within a year he was chosen First Lieutenant, and having risen by rapid promo¬ 
tion was elected Colonel of the Twenty-fourth Regiment, New York State Militia, 
J ul Y 10, 1859. On the breaking out of the Civil War, Colonel Carr was one of 
the first to offer his services to his country. He was chosen Colonel of the 
Second Regiment, New York State Volunteers, May 10, 1861, and from that time 
until the close of the war was engaged in active military service. He participated 
in the military operations on the Peninsula, bearing a conspicuous part in the 
battles of Big Bethel, Yorktown, Fair Oaks, Malvern Hill, Cedar Mountain, Gettys¬ 
burg, Petersburg, Appomattox, and many others of the severest engagements of the 
war. He never shunned danger, but ever inspired the forces under his command 
to deeds of the greatest valor by his own wonderful coolness and courage. 

During the movements on the Peninsula, in 1862, Colonel Carr was sent to 
the extreme front, and assigned to the Third Brigade, which was under the com¬ 
mand of General Frank Patterson. In consequence of the absence of its regular 
commander, Colonel Carr was temporarily assigned to the command of this brigade, 
which was familiarly known as the Jersey Brigade, and his popularity was as 
great with the soldiers of that Commonwealth as with those of New York. He 
was in command of the brigade at the battle of the Orchards, June 25, and 
throughout the Seven Days’ battles, resuming command of his regiment at Har¬ 
rison’s Landing, February 6, 1862, on the return of General Patterson. On 
the 4th of August following, while engaged with the enemy at Malvern Hill, 

[219] 


220 


JOSEPH B. CARR. 


General Patterson, by order of General Hooker, was superseded by Colonel Carr, 
who promptly charged and routed the rebels, a number of whom he captured. He 
remained at the head of the brigade until, upon the personal recommendation of 
General Hooker, he was promoted by President Lincoln to be a Brigadier-General 
of Volunteers, to date from September 7, 1862, “for gallant and meritorious 

services in the field.” General Carr’s intrepidity was well illustrated during the 
battle of Bristoe Station. His horse being shot under him, he mounted the horse 
of an orderly, and led his enthusiastic command in a successful charge upon the 
enemy. His kindly cheer and his unflinching bravery in this affair gained for him 
the sobriquet of “The Hero of Bristoe,” by which designation he was subsequently 
known. 

At the battle of Chancellorsville, on the fall of the chivalrous Berry, General 
Carr succeeded to the command of Hooker’s old division, and his admirable con¬ 
duct was made the subject of special mention in the official report of that battle 
by Major-General Sickles, the corps commander. At the battle of Gettysburg he 
lost nearly two-thirds of his entire command, and he received many compliments 
for the heroism with which he stood the fiery ordeal. Major-General Humphreys, 
in his official report of the battle, referred to General Carr as follows: “ I wish 
particularly to commend to notice the cool courage, determination, and skillful 
handling of their troops by the two brigade commanders, Brigadier-General Joseph 
B. Carr and Colonel William R. Brewster, and to ask attention to the officers 
mentioned by them as distinguished by their conduct.” General Carr commanded 
the Third Division of the Third Corps in the forward movement which followed 
the battle of Gettysburg. Crossing the Rapidan in the latter part of November, 
1863, he was one of the principal actors in the battles of Locust Grove, Robinson’s 
Tavern and Mine Run. On the reorganization of the Army in April, 1864, he 
was assigned to the command of the Lourth Division, Second Corps, General 
Hancock’s, which position he retained until he was placed in the command of the 
extreme line of defenses, with head-quarters at Yorktown. Early in July, 1864, 
he was directed to evacuate Yorktown. On the 4th of August following, he was 
given command of the Lirst Division of the Eighteenth Corps, and occupied the 
right of the line in front of Petersburg. On the 1st of October he assumed 
charge of the defense of the James, with head-quarters at Wilson’s Landing, and 
on the 20th of May, 1865, he was transferred to City Point, where he remained until 
the close of the war. Every possible recognition of General Carr’s value and 
efficiency was given by Generals Hooker, Sickles, Meade and Grant, and on the 
1st of June, 1865, he was promoted to be Brevet Major-General of United States 
Volunteers, “for gallant and meritorious services during the war,” to rank as such 
from the 13th of March, 1865. 


JOSEPH B. CARR. 


221 


At the close of the war, General Carr returned to private life, resuming his 
residence in Troy, where he engaged in manufacturing pursuits, and became the 
senior member of the firm of J. B. Carr & Co., manufacturers of chain cables. 
While on a business tour at the west, and without any previous knowledge that 
the honor was contemplated, he received intelligence of his appointment by the 
Governor as Major-General of the Third Division, New York State Militia, to 
date from January 25, 1867. In this position he has labored with success to 

improve the standard of service in the National Guard, and his bearing, when 
his command was called out during the strikes in 1877, strengthened the high 
regard in which he is deservedly held. General Carr is now in the prime of a 
vigorous manhood. His life has not only been a test of patriotism and courage, 
but one which also measured his qualities of inspiring and retaining friendship 
in circumstances of great competition, rivalry and responsibility. The result has 
been shown in his ability to combine the affection of his military comrades with 
the regard of citizens irrespective of party. The nomination of General Carr as 
Secretary of State was regarded as an eminently fit one. The ability and fidelity 
with which he discharged the duties of his office fully demonstrated the wisdom 
of the choice, and his re-election in November, 1881, by an increased majority, 
was a convincing proof of the place General Carr occupies in the confidence and 
esteem of the people of the great State of New York. 


Hon. ANSON S. WOOD, 


D EPUTY Secretary of State, was born in the town of Camillus, Onondaga 
county, New York, on the 22d of October, 1834. His father, Alvin Wood, 
was of old English, and his mother, Fanny Woodworth, of New England descent. 
Mr. Wood received an academic education at Red Creek Union Seminary, and in 
1853 entered a law office in Syracuse, New York. During the winters of 1854 
and 1855 he taught school, and in the summers of the same years read law in 
Clyde, New York, first in the office of C. D. Lawton and afterward in that of 
Hon. L. S. Ketchum, who was then County Judge and Surrogate of Wayne county. 
In the fall of 1855 he attended the Albany Law School and was admitted to the 
bar in December of the same year. In January, 1856, he began the practice of 
law in Butler, Wayne county, and in the spring of that year was elected Super¬ 
intendent of the Common Schools. In July, 1856, upon removing to Lyons, he 
formed a law partnership with Hon. William Clark, with whom and the Hon. D. 


222 


ANSON S. WOOD. 


W. Parshall he continued to practice until September, 1862. During this time he 
was twice elected Town Clerk, each time running far ahead of the rest of the 
ticket. 

In September, 1862, he responded to the call of the Union for men by enlist¬ 
ing as First Lieutenant in Company D, One Hundred and Thirty-eighth New York 
Volunteer Infantry, afterward known as the Ninth Volunteer Artillery. Soon after 
his regiment reached Washington he was promoted to be Adjutant, serving as such 
until June, 1863, when he was promoted to a Captaincy, and assigned to duty at the 
draft rendezvous at Elmira, where he remained until May, 1864. For the last two 
months of his service at Elmira he acted as Assistant Adjutant-General of the post. 
Relieved from duty at Elmira, at his own request, he rejoined his regiment and 
commanded his company at Cold Harbor, Petersburg and Monocacy, in Sheridan’s 
first fight at Manchester, and at Fisher’s Hill. In October, 1864, he was placed 
upon the staff of General J. B. Ricketts, who was in command of the Third Divis¬ 
ion, Sixth Army Corps. General Ricketts being severely wounded in the battle of 
Cedar Creek, General Seymour took command of the division and Mr. Wood was 
made Judge-Advocate of the division. In February, 1865, he was promoted to be 
Major of his regiment, and as such participated in the taking of Petersburg and 
in the capture of Lee’s army. He was brevetted Lieutenant-Colonel for gallant 
and meritorious service before Petersburg. His regiment was ordered to be mus¬ 
tered out of service in May, 1865, and Mr. Wood resigned and returned home. In 
the fall of 1865 he purchased a farm in Butler, where he remained until March, 
1869, when he removed to Wolcott, his present home, to resume the practice of 
his profession. In 1866 he was elected Supervisor of Butler, and in March, 1867, 
was appointed Assistant Assessor of United States Internal Revenue, holding this 
position until October, 1869, when he resigned. He was Town Clerk of Lyons in 
1858 and 1859; Member of Assembly from the First District of Wayne county 
in 1870 and 1871 ; Deputy Secretary of State in 1872, 1873, tSSo, 1881 and 1882. 


THE COMPTROLLER. 


By IRA DAVENPORT. 


f HE peace with Spain had robbed the West India Company of its main source 
of revenue, the expedition to recover the Delaware territory from the Swedes 
impaired its financial condition still more, and made a stricter management of the 
Colonial finances necessary. Hitherto the Opper Koopman had been in sole charge 
of all the moneys received and paid out for the Company, in his double capacity 
of Treasurer and book-keeper. In 1658, a Board of Audit was appointed, com¬ 

posed of the Director, the Treasurer, and one other member of the Council. 
During the first six years of English rule, the accounts of the Province were 
audited by commissioners appointed each time when an audit became necessary. 
In 1670 the Duke of York made Thomas Delavall, Mayor of New York city, 
“Auditor-General of all the revenues accruing from customs or otherwise in these, 
his Roy 11 H ss , his territoryees.” 

A few years later, under the government of the Duke of York, a commission 
to audit accounts was appointed by the Governor and Council, and afterward this 
commission acted in conjunction with the General Assembly. Subsequently, the 
Home Government conferred the auditing power on an Auditor-General of the 
Plantations, with a Deputy Auditor-General for each colony. T^e Home office 
charged a fee of five per centum for auditing. This was not satisfactory to the 
people, and the General Assembly took the auditing of accounts in its own hands, 
appointing commissioners from its own body; but the representatives of the Crown 
resisted the innovation as an infringement upon the rights of the Sovereign. 

During the first part of the Revolutionary period, the accounts of the Provin¬ 
cial Convention were audited by a committee of its members, appointed whenever 
accounts had to be audited. The repeated emissions of bills of credit to meet 
the exigencies of the war, and the mode prescribed to sink this floating debt, 
compelled the Provincial Convention to place the matter in the hands of one man, 
and, in 1776, they appointed Comfort Sands Auditor-General. He held the office 

[223] 


224 


THE COMPTROLLER. 


until 1782, when he resigned. The Legislature then in reality first created the 
office,* but limited its duration to two years, at the expiration of which time, in 
1784, it was continued from year to year, until 1797, when it was abolished, and 
by this plan the office of “Comptroller of the State of New York” was created. 
It was provided that the Comptroller “ shall do, perform and execute all matters 
and things heretofore required by law to be done by the Auditor of this State.” 
The statutes were rather indefinite as to what the Auditor’s duties were, and so 
in 1797 an act was passed which clearly and in express terms prescribed that the 
new chief financial officer of the State should examine and liquidate all claims, 
adjust accounts of persons indebted to the State, cause suits to be brought against 
persons neglecting to pay or refusing to account for moneys received by them 
belonging to the State. He was also authorized to borrow money on the credit 
of the State, if the demands on it exceeded the fund in the treasury. The office 
of Comptroller was continued by different acts, for periods of two and three years, 
until February 28, 1812, when it was permanently organized. 

The responsibilities of the Comptroller were greatly increased by the construc¬ 
tion of the canals. He was the receiving and disbursing officer; upon him devolved 
the duty of maintaining the credit of the State, of collecting and caring for its 
revenues, and of auditing claims against the treasury. His duties also increased 
with the increasing appropriations made for the support of the common schools, 
and with the growth of the banking and insurance interests of the State. When 
the Constitution of 1846 was adopted, the Secretary of State was the Superin¬ 
tendent of Common Schools, with a special deputy in whose hands were reposed 
the supervisory duties, but moneys were drawn on the warrant of the Comptroller; 
the management of the finances of the canals was shared with the Commissioners 
of the Canal Fund, but the Comptroller was the responsible officer, in the initia¬ 
tion and the execution of financial policies; and he had the supervision of banking 
and insurance companies. The Comptroller had been subject to the' direction of 
the Legislature in all matters, and particularly with reference to the canals, but 
the framers of the Constitution of 1846 took the question in their own hands, 
and prescribed a financial policy which was approved by the people ; and thereafter, 
by amendments to the Constitution rather than by statutory law, the needed direc¬ 
tions were given by the people to secure the execution of their will. With reference 
to banking and insurance, the principle prevailed of non-interference with business 
except in the most general way, so that the duties of the Comptroller were rather 
that of adviser to the Legislature than of Superintendent of the companies. 


*The Act, which was passed March 23, 1782, contained the following preamble: “Whereas it is necessary that the 
office of an Auditor should be established in this State.” 



THE COMPTROLLER. 


225 


Soon after the adoption of the Constitution of 1846 the opinion prevailed that 
the duties of the Comptroller were too arduous and his responsibilities too great. 
In order to relieve him from this burden there were successively established, in 
1848, the office of Auditor of the Canal Department; in 1851, the office of Super¬ 
intendent of the Banking Department; in 1854, the office of State Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, and in i860 the office of Superintendent of the Insurance 
Department; and there were transferred to these various departments the duties 
relative to the respective interests theretofore discharged by the Comptroller. 

The Comptroller continued to be the chief financial officer of the State, how¬ 
ever, in that he discussed its finances at length, and in their broadest relations to 
public policy. The war increased his duties; for, while the military department 
was charged with extensive financial trusts, yet there was necessarily devolved upon 
the Comptroller the duty of preserving the credit of the State unimpaired, and 
of raising funds for the payment of bounties and other war expenses. The policy 
of the Government continued stable, and it met its ante-war obligations in coin, to 
its imperishable honor. The labors of the Comptroller were further augmented after 
the war by the annually increasing appropriations for charitable purposes; but the 
duties of the department were materially lessened by the amendments to the Con¬ 
stitution, adopted in 1874, forbidding sectarian appropriations. His duties have 
been again greatly increased by the enactment of laws imposing direct taxes upon 
corporations. 

At present the Comptroller is, chiefly, the custodian of the General Fund, draw¬ 
ing warrants on the Treasurer for the payment of moneys therefrom, and superin¬ 
tending the collection of taxes and other moneys due the State. He settles the 

accounts of all persons indebted to the State, and certifies the amounts to the 

Treasurer. He audits all public accounts except those due from the Canal and 

Free School Funds, loans the moneys of the State and manages all its trust funds. 
In general, he superintends the fiscal concerns of the State, managing them accord¬ 
ing to law, and annually reports to the Legislature a statement of affairs, with an 
itemized account of expenditures for the preceding year and an estimate of the 
expenses the ensuing fiscal year, with recommendations concerning the revenues 
and expenditures and the financial policy of the State. 

The Comptroller is, ex officio, a Commissioner of the Land Office, and of the 
Canal Fund, a member of the Canal Board, and of the State Boards of Equaliza¬ 
tion, of Audit, and of Charities, and of the Board of State Canvassers ; also a 
Trustee of the Idiot Asylum, of the Capitol, of the State Hall, and of Union 

College. He is elected biennially, each odd year, receives a salary of $6,000, and 
is allowed a deputy, an accountant and several clerks. 


29 


226 


THE COMPTROLLER. 


AUDITORS-GENERAL OF THE PLANTATIONS. 


WILLIAM BLATHWAITE, 

1680-1717. 

ROBERT CHOLMONDELY, 

U 57 - 75 . 

HORATIO WALPOLE 

1717-57. 



Deputies for the Province of New York. 


STEPHEN VAN CORTLANDT, 

1687-92. 

ABRAHAM DE PEYSTER, 

1701-02. 

DANIEL HONAN, 

1692-1701. 

GEORGE CLARKE, 

1702. 

AUDITORS- 

-GENERAL OF THE STATE. 


COMFORT SANDS, 

1776-82. 

PETER G. CURTENIUS, 

1782-97. 


COMPTROLLERS. 


SAMUEL JONES, 

1797-1800. 

JOHN C. WRIGHT, 

1852-53. 

JOHN V. HENRY, 

1800-01. 

JAMES M. COOK, 

1854-55. 

ELISHA JENKINS, 

1801-06. 

LORENZO BURROWS, 

1856-57. 

ARCHIBALD McINTYRE, 

1806-21. 

SANFORD E. CHURCH, 

1858-59. 

JOHN SAVAGE, 

1821-23. 

ROBERT DENNISTON, 

1860-61. 

WILLIAM L. MARCY, 

1823-29. 

LUCIUS ROBINSON, 

1862-65. 

SILAS WRIGHT, Jr., 

1829-34. 

THOMAS HILLHOUSE, 

1866-67. 

AZARIAH C. FLAGG, 

1834-39- 

WILLIAM F. ALLEN, 

1868-70. 

BATES COOK, 

1839-41. 

ASHER P. NICHOLS. 

1870-71. 

JOHN A. COLLIER, 

1841-42. 

NELSON K. HOPKINS, 

1872-75. 

AZARIAH C. FLAGG, 

1842-47. 

LUCIUS ROBINSON, 

1876. 

MILLARD FILLMORE, 

1848-49. 

FREDERIC P. OLCOTT, 

1877-78. 

WASHINGTON HUNT, 

1850. 

JAMES W. WADSWORTH, 

1880-81. 

PHILO C. FULLER, 

1850-51. 

IRA DAVENPORT, 

1882-83. 











Hon. JAMES 


W. WADSWORTH, 


AT ELY Comptroller of the State of New York, who resides at Geneseo, 
Livingston county, is the youngest man who ever held the office. He 
was born in Philadelphia, October 12, 1846. His grandfather, James Wadsworth, 
removed from Connecticut to the Genesee valley in 1790, and was distinguished 
for his activity in the cause of education. His father, James S. Wadsworth, born 
in 1807, was a man of great determination and force of character. He served in 
the war for the Union as Major-General of Volunteers, and died on the 8th of 
May, 1864, of wounds received at the battle of the Wilderness. 

The son, inspired by the example of his father and not daunted by his death, 
immediately left school and, at the age of eighteen, entered the service of his 
country. In 1864 he was appointed Aide-de-Camp on the staff of Major-General 
G. K. Warren, commanding the Fifth Corps of the Army of the Potomac, and 
continued in active service until the conclusion of the war, when he returned home 
and assumed control of the family estates, having received the commendation of 
his superior officers for active and efficient service in the field. He has represented 
his town in the Board of Supervisors three terms, and in 1878 and 1879 he was 
a Member of Assembly, serving on the Committee of Ways and Means, the Rail¬ 
road Investigating Committee, and other important committees of the House. He 
was nominated for Comptroller by the Republican State Convention in 1879, with 
great unanimity, and was elected by the largest vote of any candidate upon the 
successful ticket. He was faithful to his trust as Comptroller, guarding the public 
treasury with vigilance, and maintaining intelligent supervision over the funds of 
the State. In 1881 he was elected Representative in Congress from the Twenty- 
seventh District to fill a vacancy, and in 1882 he was re-elected for the full term. 

Mr. Wadsworth has been conspicuous in official life ’as the advocate of measures 
which, by their adoption, have not only increased the revenues of the State, but 
which have more equally and equitably distributed the burdens of taxation. He has 
counseled change of method whenever and wherever change would operate for the 
benefit of the whole people, and he has justified public confidence by the intelligent 

supervision and faithful discharge of the responsible trusts committed to his care. 

[227] 


Hon. IRA DAVENPORT, 

COMPTROLLER, 

TS the son of Colonel Ira Davenport, who possessed large estates in Steuben 

county, of which he was one of the earliest settlers. His mother was the 
daughter of Dugald Cameron of Bath, New York. Mr. Davenport was born in 

Hornellsville, New York, June 28, 1841. He resides in Bath, a village that owes 

much to his generosity and enterprise. He is not at present engaged in any 

regular business. He represented the Twenty-seventh Senatorial District in the 
Senate of 1878-79, and served as Chairman of the Committee on Commerce and 
Navigation and as a member of the Committees on Canals, and Retrenchment. 
He was re-elected to the last Senate by the largest majority ever given in his 
district, and served as Chairman of the Committee on Commerce and Navigation, 
and a member of the Committees on Railroads, and on Erection and Division of 
Towns and Counties. In 1881 Mr. Davenport, on the nomination of the Repub¬ 
lican State Convention, was elected to the office of Comptroller; and received the 
largest majority of any candidate on the Republican State ticket. 


HENRY GALLIEN, 

D EPUTY Comptroller since 1876, was born September 10, 1835, in the island 
of Guernsey, England, his parents, however, being French. He attended the 
common schools, but at the age of eighteen entered the Auditor’s office, as Assistant 
Book-keeper, and continued in that position until 1859. In i860 he was appointed 
to a clerkship in the Comptroller’s office, and in 1863 he was made Accountant and 
Transfer Officer. In 1868 he was appointed Second Deputy Comptroller, with all 
the powers of Deputy, and in 1876 he succeeded Philip Phelps as Deputy Comp¬ 
troller. He is a Republican in politics, but has devoted his whole time to the 
duties connected with the above-mentioned positions of trust. 

[228J 











THE TREASURER. 


By ROBERT A. MAXWELL. 


i/|T HE first Treasurer of the Province of New Netherland, Isaac de Raziere, 
enjoys the doubtful honor of having flooded the parts of America which 
were then inhabited by white people, with fiat money, the wampum. He intro¬ 
duced it into the New England Colonies in 1627, much to the disgust of the 
inhabitants, who declared wampum “the devil’s work and money;” yet, notwith¬ 
standing, it remained for nearly a century the currency in which quit-rents and 
other dues to the Government were paid to the Treasurer. When relieved of 
the former, it is easy to believe that occasionally he had an undue amount of 
leisure, for the revenues of the Province were not very large, nor did they increase 
rapidly after the English took possession of the colony. In 1680 they were stated 
at ,£3,000. The revenues were paid to the Collector of Customs, who accounted to 
the Auditor-General of Plantations in England. This system, with its exactions for 
auditing on one hand, and on the other the culpable extravagance, if not dishonesty, 
of the Governor and his subordinates, so exasperated the General Assembly that it 
took charge of the auditing of expenditures, and placed the funds in custody of a 
Treasurer appointed by it. The Treasurer was, therefore, from the beginning, the 
People’s agent; the one general officer in the colony selected by their representa¬ 
tives. A Treasurer was appointed by the Provincial Convention, and the Treasurer 
of the State continued to be appointed by the Legislature until the adoption of the 
Constitution of 1846. The Constitutional Commission sought to restore the method 
of appointment by the Legislature; but the proposition did not meet with the 
approval of the Legislature by which the proposed amendments were submitted. 

All the moneys due for taxes, tax-sales, land sales, and peddler’s licenses are 
paid into the Treasury, as are also canal tolls, corporation taxes, interest on the 
public funds, and all moneys accruing to the State from whatever source; and out 
of the funds in his custody, it is the duty of the Treasurer to pay all warrants 
drawn upon him by the Comptroller, the Auditor of the Canal Department, and 
the Superintendent of Public Instruction; but, without such warrant, he is not 

[229] 


2 3 ° 


THE TREASURER. 


authorized to pay any money out of the Treasury. The Treasurer reports to the 
Legislature an exact statement of the receipts and payments during the year, and 
the balance in the Treasury. No transfer of securities held by the Superintend¬ 
ents of the Banking or the Insurance Departments is valid unless countersigned 
by the Treasurer. Before the Treasurer enters upon the duties of his office, he 
gives a bond to the people of the State in the sum of $50,000, with at least four 
sureties, for the faithful discharge of his duties. 

The Treasurer, by virtue of his office, is a Commissioner of the Land Office 
and of the Canal Fund, a member of the Canal Board and of the State Board 
of Canvassers, the Board of Equalization of Assessments, and the State Board of 
Audit, and he is also a Trustee of Union College, and one of the Custodians 
of the old State Hall. 

The following statement of the condition of the Treasury at the close of 
the last fiscal year, in 1882, will furnish an idea of the growth of the State since 
1680, when $15,000 constituted its annual budget: 

Balance in the Treasury, October 1, 1881 - $5>53 l858 67 

Receipts during the fiscal year ending September 30, 1882- 12,169,874 04 


$i7>70i,732 71 

Payments during the fiscal year ending September 30, 1882 - 13,844,369 37 

Balance in the Treasury, October 1, 1882 - $3,857,363 34 


TREASURERS. 


ABRAHAM DePEYSTER, 1706-21 

ABRAHAM DePEYSTER, Jr., 1721-67 

FREDERICK DePEYSTER, 1767 

ABRAHAM LOTTS, 1767-76 

PETER V. B. LIVINGSTON, 1776-78 

GERARDUS BANCKER, 1778-98 

ROBERT McCLALLEN, 1798-1803 

ABRAHAM G. LANSING, 1803-08 

DAVID THOMAS, 1808-10 

ABRAHAM G. LANSING, 1810-12 

DAVID THOMAS, 1812-13 

CHARLES Z. PLATT, 1813-17 

GERRET L. DOX ; 1817-21 

BENJAMIN KNOWER, 1821-24 

ABRAHAM KEYSER, Jr., 1824-25 

GAMALIEL H. BARSTOW, 1825-26 

ABRAHAM KEYSER, 1826-38 

GAMALIEL H. BARSTOW, 1838-39 

JACOB HAIGHT, 1839-42 

THOMAS FARRINGTON, 1842-45 


BENJAMIN ENOS, 

1845-46 

THOMAS FARRINGTON, 

1846-47 

ALVAH HUNT, 

1848-51 

JAMES M. COOK, 

1852 

BENJAMIN WELCH, Jr., 

1852-53 

ELBRIDGE G. SPAULDING, 

1854-55 

STEPHEN CLARK, 

iri 

00 

ISAAC V. VANDERPOEL, 

1858-59 

PHILIP DORSHEIMER, 

1860-61 

WILLIAM B. LEWIS, 

1862-63 

GEORGE W. SCHUYLER, 

I864-65 

JOSEPH HOWLAND, 

I866-67 

WHEELER H. BRISTOL, 

1868-71 

THOMAS RAINES, 

1872-75 

ABRAHAM LANSING, June to 

Sept., 1874 

CHARLES N. ROSS, 

1876-77 

JAMES MACKIN, 

1878-79 

NATHAN D. WENDELL, 

1880-81 

ROBERT A. MAXWELL, 

00 

CO 

Is) 

1 

CO 

OJ 















Hon. NATHAN D. WENDELL, 

T ATELY State Treasurer, was born at Fort Plain, Montgomery county, November 
4 6, 1834. He is the son of Jacob and Margaret Failing Wendell. His ances¬ 

tors on his father’s side came from Holland about the year 1650, and on his 
mother’s side from Germany, about the year 1770. Jacob Wendell was a Justice 
of the Peace for over twelve years, and was at one time Colonel of the military 
forces of the county. The son was educated at the common schools, and at 
the age of seventeen entered the office of the Mohawk Valley Register , where he 
remained for three years, learning the art of printing. In 1854 he removed to 
Albany, became book-keeper in the Merchants’ Bank of Albany, New York, and was 
promoted by successive steps until, in 1864, he was elected Cashier. 

Mr. Wendell is an earnest Republican. In 1872, however, he was elected 
Treasurer of the strongly Democratic county of Albany, by a majority of over 
one thousand three hundred, and re-elected in 1875 by a majority of two thousand 
seven hundred, the largest majority ever given to any Republican in the county. 
In 1879 be was nominated for State Treasurer by the Republican Convention at 
Saratoga Springs, and was elected in November following. Mr. Wendell was elected 
Vice-President of the Merchants’ National Bank in 1881, and in December of the 
same year he was appointed Receiver of the Universal Life Insurance Company. 


Hon. ROBERT A. MAXWELL, 

STATE TREASURER, 

W AS born in Jackson, Washington county, November n, 1839. His parents, 
who are of Scotch descent, celebrated their golden wedding on the 5th of 
January, 1882, at their residence near Cambridge. The son was educated in the 
common schools and at the State Normal School, Albany. At the age of eighteen 
he began teaching at Greenwich, Washington county, and then removed to Kenosha, 
Wisconsin, where he continued for a time in the same profession. He subsequently 
engaged in the buying and selling of produce in Chicago, and was a member of 
the Board of Trade of that city for seven years. His health becoming impaired, 
he returned to this State, and engaged in the malting business in Batavia, in which 
he has been very successful. 

Mr. Maxwell is a Democrat, but took no active interest in politics previous to 
the administration of Governor Tilden, when he became Chairman of the Genesee 
County Democratic Committee. He was for three years also a member of the 
Democratic State Committee for the Thirty-first Congressional District. He has 
been connected with many local charitable institutions, and in 1878 was appointed a 
Trustee of the New York State Institution for the Blind, at Batavia, and is now 
Treasurer of the Board of Trustees. He was nominated for State Treasurer by 
the Democratic State Convention in 1881, and was elected by a majority of thirty 
thousand, notwithstanding the remainder of the Democratic State ticket was defeated. 


[ 232 ] 





EDGAR K. APGAR, 

D EPUTY State Treasurer, was born in Ithaca, New York, December 19, 1842, 
and obtained his education at the Ithaca Academy and at Yale College. 
He was the Democratic candidate for Member of Assembly in Tompkins county 
in 1865, and was the youngest delegate to the Union National Convention held 
at Philadelphia in 1866. He was the Democratic candidate for Congress in 1870, 
and for Presidential Elector in 1872. He was for eight consecutive years a mem¬ 
ber of the Democratic State Committee, and during the years 1874, 1875 an d J 876 
he was Secretary of the Committee. 

He has always resided at Ithaca except for a part of the years 1873 and 
1874, when he was at Worcester, Massachusetts, as the Editor-in-chief of the 

Worcester Daily Press. He resigned this position on the 1st day of May, 1874, 

and returned to New York to accept the appointment of Deputy State Treasurer 
from Hon. Thomas Raines. He served in that position until January 1, 1876, 

when he was appointed Deputy Secretary of State by Hon. John Bigelow, with 
whom he served until the end of his term. He was also Pardon Clerk in the 
Executive Chamber during the four years of Governor Hoffman’s administration — 
1869, 1870, 1871 and 1872. 

In the spring of 1878 he was appointed, under an act of the Legislature of 
that year, to examine and report upon the business management of the asylums 
and other State charitable institutions, all of which he visited and personally 

inspected. His report was sent to the Legislature on April 9, 1879, an d received 
much attention from experts throughout the United States and abroad for the 
completeness and arrangement of its statistical tables, for its analysis of expendi¬ 
tures, and for its general suggestions. 

30 


[233] 


THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. 


By LESLIE W. RUSSELL. 


^SrHE Schout-Fiscal of New Netherland performed duties, which at the present 

vV time are equivalent to those of a Sheriff and of the Attorney-General. He 
was governed in his actions by “ the Schouts-Roll of Amsterdam,” a copy of which 
is in the State Library. Although entitled to a seat in the Council, and to 
express his opinions on questions relating to finance, justice, or police, he had no 
vote; nevertheless, this office was the most responsible in the Colony, for the 
Schouts-Fiscal was required to watch constantly the interests of the Company in 
every direction, especially where the fisc was concerned. The appointment of this 
officer was made by the Directors of the West India Company, Chamber of Amster¬ 
dam, and in like manner his successor under English rule was named by the 
Home Government after 1702. Besides the ordinary duties of Attorney for the 
Government, the English Attorney-General had to draw the bills to be enacted, 

and prepare letters-patent for corporations, grants of land, etc., the fees from 
which made his position highly lucrative. During the first thirty odd years of the 
English period, the administration had another law officer, the Advocate-General, 
charged to represent the Government in the Admiralty Court. His office was 
merged in that of the Attorney-General in 1700. 

The first Attorney-General of the State of New York, Egbert Benson, was 
elected by the Provincial Convention, May 3, 1777, although the Constitution, 

adopted a few days previous, provided for his appointment by the Council of 
Appointment. The third Constitution made him an elective officer like the other 
heads of departments. 

With the increase of the wealth and population of this State, the business of 

the Attorney-General’s office has also increased in a more than equal ratio. He 

is the law officer in whose charge all of the legal interests of the State are 
placed, and in the discharge of the duties pertaining to such interests, has neces¬ 
sarily to meet substantially the whole Bar of the State. In the consideration of 
statutory legislation by which the interests of great corporations are taxed, and in 

[234] 


THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. 


235 


the defense of the rights of the State through all of its multitudinous interests, 
the highest skill is requisite to successfully cope with the legal talent which is 
usually arrayed against him. The claims against the State of New York, now 
pending, amount to millions of dollars; while those which she prosecutes to recover 
sums due to her are numerous and involve large sums. 

The Attorney-General is also counsel for the people in all criminal litigation, 
if called upon by the proper authorities, namely, the Governor or Justices of the 
Supreme Court, and has general power of direction of the District Attorneys of 
the State. In cases where bribery of Members of the Legislature is attempted, 
the Attorney-General is required by law to attend personally the prosecution. 

In cases of insolvent corporations, the suits are usually conducted by the 
Attorney-General for the dissolution of the companies and the distribution of the 
funds, and the legislation of the State has for its object the placing in his hands 
the supervisory power to see that such corporations are properly terminated and 
their assets fairly distributed. The cases of this character, now pending, affect 
over ten millions of property; and in such litigations the Attorney-General is 
regarded as amicus curiae , while, strictly speaking, he is an advocate to protect the 
general interests of the people. 

He is the legal adviser of all the departments of the State, and by common 
custom has become, in those cases in which it is thought advisable to call upon 
him, the adviser also of the officials of the various municipalities of the State. 

The Attorney-General is a member of the State Board of Charities, a mem¬ 
ber of the State Board of Health, a Trustee of the New State Hall, a Com¬ 
missioner of the Old Capitol, and one of the three Commissioners of the New 
Capitol. He is also one of the Trustees of the Canal Fund, a member of the 
Canal Board, and a Commissioner of the Land Office. He is Counsel of the 
people before the State Board of Audit, and there are pending before the Canal 
Board, and before the State Board of Audit alone, to say nothing of the cases 
before the various courts of the State, over four hundred and fifty cases, where 
claims are made against the State. 

To assist the Attorney-General, the law allows him two deputies, four clerks, 
and a stenographer. 


THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. 


236 


ATTORNEYS-GENERAL. 


THOMAS RUDYARD, 

1684-85. 

JAMES GRAHAM, 

1685-87. 

GEORGE FAREWELL, 

1687-90. 

JACOB MILBORN, 

1690-91. 

THOMAS NEWTON, 

1691. 

GEORGE FAREWELL, 

1691. 

JAMES GRAHAM, 

1691-1701. 

SAMPSON SH. BROUGHTON, 

1701-05. 

MAY BICKLEY, 

1705. 

SAMPSON BROUGHTON, 

1705-09. 

JOHN RAYNER, 

1709. 

MAY BICKLEY, 

1709-12. 

DAVID JAMISON, 

1712-21. 

JAMES ALEXANDER, 

1721-22. 

RICHARD BRADLEY, 

1722-51. 

WILLIAM SMITH, 

1751-52. 

WILLIAM KEMPE, 

1752-59. 

JOHN TABOR KEMPE, 

1 759-67. 

JAMES DUANE, 

1767-68. 

JOHN TABOR KEMPE, 

1768-75. 

EGBERT BENSON, 

1777-88. 

RICHARD VARICK, 

1788-89. 

AARON BURR, 

1789-91. 

MORGAN LEWIS, 

1791-92. 

NATHANIEL LAWRENCE, 

1792^5. 

JOSIAH OGDEN HOFFMAN, 

1795-1802. 

AMBROSE SPENCER, 

1802-04. 

JOHN WOODWORTH, 

1804-08. 

MATTHIAS B. HILDRETH, 

1808-10. 


ABRAHAM VAN VECHTEN, 

1810-11. 

MATTHIAS B. HILDRETH, 

1811-12. 

THOMAS ADDIS EMMETT, 

1812-13. 

ABRAHAM VAN VECHTEN, 

1813-15. 

MARTIN VAN BUREN, 

1815-19. 

THOMAS J. OAKLEY, 

1819-21. 

SAMUEL A. TALCOTT, 

1821-29. 

GREENE C. BRONSON, 

1829-36. 

SAMUEL BEARDSLEY, 

1836-39. 

WILLIS HALL, 

1839-42. 

GEORGE P. BARKER, 

1842-45. 

JOHN VAN BUREN, 

1845-47. 

AMBROSE L. JORDAN, 

1848-49. 

LEVI S. CHATFIELD, 

1850-53. 

GARDNER STOWE, 

1853. 

OGDEN HOFFMAN, 

1854-55. 

STEPHEN B. CUSHING, 

1856-57. 

LYMAN TREMAIN, 

1858-59. 

CHARLES G. MYERS, 

1860-61. 

DANIEL S. DICKINSON, 

1862-63. 

JOHN COCHRANE, 

1864-65. 

JOHN H. MARTINDALE, 

1866-67. 

MARSHALL B. CHAMPLAIN, 

1 

co 

'O 

co 

FRANCIS C. BARLOW, 

1872-73. 

DANIEL PRATT, 

1874-75. 

CHARLES S. FAIRCHILD, 

1876-77. 

AUGUSTUS SCHOONMAKER, 

1878-79. 

HAMILTON WARD, 

1880-81. 

LESLIE W. RUSSELL, 

1882-83. 






-^.5 















Hon. HAMILTON WARD, 

T ATELY Attorney-General, was born in the town of Salisbury, Herkimer county, 
*—4 New York, February 3, 1828. He received an academic education, studied 
law, and was admitted to the Bar in 1851. He began the practice of his profession 
in Belmont, Allegany county, New York, where he still resides; and he rose so 
rapidly in public esteem that in 1856 he was elected District Attorney for a term 
of three years. At the close of this term he devoted his time entirely to his private 
practice for three years, when he was again elected District Attorney. This was in 
1862 ; and, at the same time, he was designated by the Governor as a member 
of the committee in his locality for the raising and organization of troops for the 
Federal service. Mr. Ward served three terms as a Representative in Congress. 
In the Thirty-ninth Congress he was a member of the Committees on Claims, and 
Accounts; in the Fortieth Congress he was on the Committee on the Assassination 
of President Lincoln, and also on the Committee to prepare articles of impeach¬ 
ment against President Johnson; and in the Forty-first Congress he was Chairman 
of the Committee on Revolutionary Claims. He was a member of the Republican 
State Convention in 1867, and of several Conventions since that year. In the Con¬ 
vention of 1871, he was the leader of the supporters of Horace Greeley, on the 
floor, and made a lengthy and able speech in behalf of the old organization in the 
city of New York. He was followed by Roscoe Conkling, in a memorable speech, 
which proved decisive of the action of the Convention. Eight years later, Mr. 
Conkling made an earnest appeal to the Republican State Convention to nominate 
Mr. Ward for the office of Attorney-General. The appeal was successful, Mr. Ward 
was nominated, and duly elected by the people 


[237] 


Hon. LESLIE W. RUSSELL, 

ATTORNEY-GENERAL, 

TS the only son of the late Hon. John Leslie Russell, who was, successively,. 
^ County Clerk of St. Lawrence county, Member of Assembly, member of the 
Constitutional Convention of 1846, and County Treasurer. The son was born at 
Canton, St. Lawrence county, New York, April 15, 1840. He received an academic 
education, and began the study of the law in the office of Hill, Cagger & Porter, 
of Albany, and completed his studies in the office of Cary & Pratt, of Milwaukee, 
Wisconsin. He was about to accept a commission as First Lieutenant of the 
First Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, when he was called home by the sudden death 
of his father. The settlement of his father’s property and business necessarily 
devolved upon him, and he was forced to decline the commission. He was 
admitted Attorney and Counselor at Law in the courts of this State in May, 1861, 
and is now a member of the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. 
In 1869, he was chosen one of the Professors in the Law School of the St. 
Lawrence University, and held the position for several years. 

In 1867, Mr. Russell was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention, 
and served in that body on the Committees on Suffrage and Corporations. In 
1869, he was elected District Attorney of St. Lawrence county, but declined a 
renomination. In 1876 and also in 1880 he was a candidate for elector of President 
and Vice-President upon the Republican ticket. In 1877, he was elected County 
Judge of St. Lawrence county, and in 1878 he was chosen a Regent of the Uni¬ 
versity. Judge Russell was nominated for Attorney-General by the Republican State 
Convention in 1881, and was elected by a large plurality. 


[238] 









WILLIAM B. RUGGLES, 

T 7 MRST Deputy Attorney-General in 1878-79 and in 1880-81, was born May 14, 
182 7, in Bath, Steuben county, New York, where he now resides. He 
attended the common schools, and at the age of thirteen began the printer’s trade, 
continuing in that work until the spring of 1845, when he began his final prepa¬ 
ration for college. He was admitted to the Sophomore class of Hamilton College 
September, 1846, and graduated July, 1849. The degree of Master of Arts was 
also conferred upon him by this institution in 1858. After completing his studies 
he went to Atlanta, Georgia, became editor, and, in a few months, both publisher 
and editor of the Atlanta Intelligencer , which was at that time the leading Demo¬ 
cratic paper of upper Georgia. In 1857, having sold the paper, he returned to New 
York and began the study of law with Theodore W. Dwight, in Clinton. Although 
admitted to practice at Utica July, 1858, he continued the study of law with Judge 
C. H. Doolittle of that city, until March, 1859, when he opened an office in Bath. 
He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention at St. Louis in 1876, 
and was a member of the Legislature in 1876 and 1877. January 1, 1878, he was 
appointed First Deputy Attorney-General, and was reappointed by Mr. Schoonmaker’s 
Republican successor, Hamilton Ward. 


CHARLES J. EVERETT, 

O F Utica, Second Deputy Attorney-General in 1880 and 1881, was born in 
Litchfield, Herkimer county, New York, February 9, 1848. He attended 
the Utica Free Academy, and afterward Hamilton College, from which institution 
he graduated in July, 1870. He then studied law at Utica, in the office of Roscoe 
Conkling, and, when admitted to the bar, began the practice of his profession in 
the same city. He is a member of the firm of Everett & Lewis. Mr. Everett is 
Judge-Advocate-General, with rank of Major, on the staff of the Sixth Brigade, 
National Guard of the State of New York. He is a Republican. 

[239] 


JAMES A. DENNISON, 


I AlRST Deputy Attorney-General in 1882, was born, of English descent, in Madi- 
son county, Indiana, September 10, 1846. In April, 1862, when he was 
sixteen years old, he entered the Union Army as a private in Company E of 
the Eighth Missouri Cavalry, having previously served six months in the Seven¬ 
teenth Missouri Volunteers. He was mustered out of the army in April, 1865, and 

after the close of the war he entered the United States Military Academy at 

West Point, where he graduated in 1870. He served in the Regular Army from 
June 15, 1870, to August 31, 1872, principally in California, Colorado and New 
Mexico, as Second Lieutenant in the Second United States Artillery and in the 
Eighth Cavalry. In May, 1873, he graduated at the Albany Law School. During 

the years 1875 and 1876 Mr. Dennison served as Major of Engineers in the 

Egyptian Army. He was engaged in both campaigns in Abyssinia, and was Chief 
Engineer of the first expedition under Colonel Arendrup. 


JOHN C. KEELER, 

S ECOND Deputy Attorney-General in 1882, was born February 17, 1851, at 
Malone, Franklin county, New York, of parents who were also born at Malone 
and who lived and died there. Mr. Keeler was educated at Franklin Academy, 
in Malone, and Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts. He subsequently 
studied law, and was admitted to the bar in New York city January 26, 1875. 

From 1875 to 1877 he was a clerk in the office of Benjamin K. Phelps, the District 
Attorney of the city and county of New York. 


STATE ENGINEER AND SURVEYOR. 


By SILAS SEYMOUR. 


JjTHE Dutch colonists of New Netherland felt the necessity of a land surveyor, 
in order that regularity should be observed in drawing boundary and division 
lines, and accordingly in 1642, a “ Land Meeter,” Land Measurer, was appointed by 
the Director-General and Council. The surveyor received a salary of two hundred 
guilders — $80—with an additional fee of ten shillings per diem, and two stivers — 
4 cents—per morgen — two acres. Toward the end of the Dutch, and during the 
whole of the English period, in which the office was continued, the steadily increas¬ 
ing population and the agricultural development of the country, constantly required 
the services of an official surveyor, and made the office a very profitable one. 
Applicants for land had to petition the Governor in Council sitting as a Commis¬ 
sioner of the Land Office, of which the Surveyor-General became a member in 1708, 
for a license to purchase lands from the Indians. The purchase made, the deed for 
it was attached to a second petition for a warrant to the Surveyor-General to make 
a survey of the land. Another warrant was then issued, directing the Attorney- 
General to prepare the patent, which had to be engrossed in the Secretary’s office. 

After the Revolutionary War, the office of Surveyor-General, to be appointed 
by the Council of Appointment, was renewed under the State Government by an act 
of March 20, 1781, “for raising two regiments for the defense of this State,” the 
recruits for which were to be allowed bounties of unappropriated lands, to be laid 
out into townships by the Surveyor-General. Under the first Constitution this officer 
was a Commissioner of the Land Office and of the Canal Fund, and the Constitu¬ 
tion of 1821 made him a member of the State Board of Canvassers. He had 
numerous special duties imposed upon him relative to the sale and settlement of 
lands and the adjustment of Indian titles and other internal land matters. 

The Constitution of 1846 abolished the office of Surveyor-General and insti¬ 
tuted in its place that of State Engineer and Surveyor, possessing all the powers 
of the former except that of Commissioner of the Canal Fund. In addition he 
has general duties relative to the railroads and canals not required of the former 

11 [241 ] 


242 


STATE ENGINEER AND SURVEYOR. 


officer. He is, ex-officio, a Trustee of the New State Hall and of Union College; 
a Commissioner of the Land Office; a member of the Canal Board and the Board 
of State Canvassers, and a Custodian of the Old State Hall. He is elected 
biennially (each odd year); receives a salary of $5,000 and $200 for traveling 
expenses; has a deputy who supervises the reports of railroad companies, on which 
the State Engineer makes an annual report to the Legislature, and is allowed the 
necessary clerks, the expense of which is assessed upon the railroad companies of 
the State in proportion to their earnings. 

The engineer department of the canals is under the supervision of the State 
Engineer and Surveyor. Three Division and three Resident Engineers, whose duty 
it is to prepare the maps and plans and make the surveys required by the Canal 
Board and the Superintendent of Public Works, in the care, maintenance and 
improvement of the State canals, and the necessary subordinate engineers tempo¬ 
rarily employed, are appointed by him. He also supervises the improvement of 
navigation upon the Hudson river by dredging and construction of dykes. He 
appoints a Canal Clerk and also a Land Clerk, who has charge of all matters 
relating to State lands and land records, makes an annual report to the Legisla¬ 
ture upon canals, and upon all bridge companies, and also upon steamboat companies 
navigating the lakes and rivers of the State. 


SURVE YORS-GENERAL. 


ANDRIES HUDDE, 1642-48 

CLAES VAN ELSLANT, 1648-54 

ANDRIES HUDDE, 1654-55 

PETER VAN COUWENHOVEN 1655-57 
JACQUES CORTELJOU, 1657-83 

PHILIP WELLS, 1683-90 

LEONARD BECKWITH, 1690-91 

ALEXANDER BOYLE, 1691 

AUGUSTINE GRAHAM, 1691-1719 

ALLANE JARRATT, 1719 

AUGUSTINE GRAHAM, 1719 


STATE ENGINEERS 


CHARLES B. STEWART. 1848-49 

HEZEKIAH C. SEYMOUR, 1850-51 

WILLIAM J. McALPINE 1852-53 

WHEELER H. BRISTOL, 1853 

HENRY RAMSEY, 1853 

JOHN T. CLARK, 1854-55 

SILAS SEYMOUR, 1856-57 


VAN RENSSELAER RICHMOND, 1858-61. 


ALLANE JARRATT, 1719 

CADWALLADER COLDEN, 1720-62 

ALEXANDER COLDEN, 1751-62 

DAVID COLDEN, 1774-75 

EDWARD FANNING, 1775-81 

PHILIP SCHUYLER, 1781-84 

SIMEON DE WITT, 1784-1835 

WILLIAM CAMPBELL, 1835-38 

ORVILLE L. HOLLEY, 1838-42 

NATHANIEL JONES, 1842-45 

HUGH HALSEY, 1845-47 

AND SURVEYORS. 

WILLIAM B. TAYLOR, 1862-65 

J. PLATT GOODSELL, 1866-67 

VAN RENSSELAER RICHMOND, 1868-71 
WILLIAM B. TAYLER, 1872-73 

SYLVANUS H. SWEET, 1874-75 

JOHN D. VAN BUREN, Jr., 1876-77 

HORATIO SEYMOUR, Jr., 1878-81 

SILAS SEYMOUR, 1882-83 
















Hon. HORATIO SEYMOUR, Jr., 


S TATE Engineer and Surveyor from 1877 to 1882, is a native of Utica, Oneida 
county, where he was born January 8, 1844. He is the son of Hon. John F. 

Seymour, and nephew of ex-Governor Seymour. He received his education in 
the public schools of Utica, at Yale College, where he graduated in 1867, and at 
the Sheffield Scientific School. He also studied law in his father’s office during 
the winter of 1867 and 1868. He is a civil engineer, and has accomplished many 
important topographical works for the State and for railroads and other corporations. 
His first engineering was in connection with the Cazenovia and Canastota railroad, 
which he saw completed and in running order. In 1871 he was appointed assistant 
engineer on the Seneca Falls and Sodus Bay railroad, afterward held the position 
of assistant engineer on the Wellsboro and Lawrenceville railroad, and later was 
chief engineer of the Cowanesque Valley railroad. In 1873 he made a survey of 
the Antrim mine of the Fall Brook Coal Company, and in 1874 a topographical 
survey of the lands of the Buffalo Coal Company, in Pennsylvania. December 1, 
1874, Mr. Seymour was appointed assistant engineer on the Erie canal. He soon 
became involved in a controversy with the contractors, who threw up their contract. 
Mr. Seymour carried on the abandoned work and finished it before the opening 
of navigation, although the contractors said it could not be done. His protests 
against the unlawful demands of contractors, and refusal to certify work without 
personal knowledge of its accomplishment, suggested in part to Governor Tilden the 
necessity of the investigation into alleged Canal frauds. In the Democratic Con¬ 
vention of 1875 Mr. Seymour was prominently mentioned in connection with the 
nomination for State Engineer and Surveyor. He soon afterward severed his con¬ 
nection with the canals, and was for some time engaged in the Topographic Survey 
of the State. In the Democratic State Convention at Albany, in 1877, the name 
of Mr. Seymour was the only one presented for the office of State Engineer and 
Surveyor, and he was unanimously nominated. He was elected by a majority of 
over thirty-five thousand votes. Mr. Seymour was unanimously re-nominated in 1879, 
and was the only Democratic State officer elected in this State in that year. 


Hon. SILAS SEYMOUR, 


STATE ENGINEER AND SURVEYOR, 

W AS born in the town of Stillwater, Saratoga county, New York, June 20, 
1817. The first eighteen years of his life were spent upon a farm 

with his father, Deacon John Seymour, and his grandfather, Deacon William 

Seymour, who, soon after the Revolutionary War, in which he took an active 
part, had removed from Connecticut to the State of New York. During this 

period, young Seymour received a good common school education, and a part of 
the time worked as an apprentice at the carpenter and joiner trade. In the 
spring of 1835, he obtained a situation as axman in one of the engineering parties 
engaged in making the first surveys for the New York and Erie railroad, and 
soon after was promoted to rodman in another party. During the latter part of 
the year he was appointed Assistant Engineer in charge of a portion of the work. 
On the suspension of the work in the spring of 1837, he entered the Fredonia 

Academy, where he acquired a knowledge of chemistry, natural philosophy, and 
the higher mathematics. When work was resumed upon the road in 1838, Mr. 

Seymour returned to the employ of the company, and was placed in charge, as 

Division Engineer, of the most difficult portions, both as regards location and con¬ 
struction. In the final revision of the line between Corning and Dunkirk, he 
recommended several important changes, which were adopted, notwithstanding they 
involved the loss of several hundred thousand dollars of previous expenditure. 

These changes, by shortening the distance and reducing the maximum grade, resulted 
ultimately in almost incalculable saving to the company. Upon the opening of the 
road to Port Jervis and subsequently to Binghamton, Mr. Seymour was highly 

complimented by the Board of Directors, and was appointed Superintendent of 
Transportation. As the Erie road approached completion, Mr. Seymour organized 
and became Chief Engineer of the Dunkirk and State Line Railroad Company, 
for the purpose of providing a railroad connection westward. He also secured an 
exclusive lease of the Erie and North-East railroad for the term of twenty years. 
This road was then being constructed with a narrow gauge, and he secured the 

[ 244 ] 








SILAS SEYMOUR. 


245 


lease with the understanding that the six feet gauge of the Erie railroad should 
be substituted therefor. Mr. Seymour laid the last rail upon the western division 
of the New York and Erie railroad on the 17th of April, 1851, and assisted at 
the great celebration of the opening of the road for business on the 15th of May 
following. He then became Chief Engineer of the Buffalo and New York City 
railroad, extending from Hornellsville to Buffalo, of which road he was also for 
some time the General Superintendent. Here he achieved his greatest success in 
designing and constructing the bridge across the Genesee river at Portage, a 
structure two hundred and thirty-four feet high, and eighteen hundred feet in 
length. He subsequently became connected with the construction and equipment 
of some of the most important roads in the country, embracing the Ohio and 
Mississippi, Louisville and Nashville, Maysville and Lexington, Scioto and Hocking 
Valley, New York and Boston Air Line, the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron, of 
Canada, Western, of North Carolina, and Sacramento Valley, of California. Mr. 
Seymour was first elected State Engineer and Surveyor in 1855, holding the office 
during the years 1856 and 1857. He then established himself in the city of 
New York, as Consulting Engineer, the duties of which position occupied his time 
until the beginning of the Civil War. He was then offered the position of 
Brigadier-General in the army, but declined the honor. At his suggestion, a 
Military Railroad Bureau was organized, and placed under the command of General 
McCollum. In 1862, Mr. Seymour was appointed Chief Engineer of the Wash¬ 
ington and Alexandria railroad, with the view to the construction of a railroad 
bridge across the Potomac, which important work was successfully completed in 
1864. In 1863 he was appointed Consulting Engineer of the Washington aque¬ 
duct, and afterward Chief Engineer, a position which he retained for two years, when 
he resigned, in consequence of the failure of Congress to appropriate the money 
needed for the continuation of the work. In the winter of 1863-1864 he was 
appointed Consulting Engineer of the Union Pacific railroad, but he could not 
give his entire time to the work until the summer of 1865. He then visited 
and examined the various routes proposed for the road, and from that time until 
its completion was steadily employed in connection with the work. He designed 
the High Bridge over Dale Creek Canon, near the summit of the Black Hill 
range of the Rocky Mountains. It stands at an elevation of about eight thou¬ 
sand feet above the level of the sea, and is one hundred and thirty-seven feet 
high, and eight hundred feet long. The last rail connecting the Union Pacific and 
Central Pacific roads was laid on the 10th of May, 1869, with appropriate cere¬ 
monies, at which Mr. Seymour assisted. 

During the winter of 1867-1868, Mr. Seymour, under a resolution of Congress, 
prepared an elaborate report upon the subject of improving the channel of the 


246 


SILAS SEYMOUR. 


Potomac river and building a bridge over the river. In 1873, he visited Europe, 
in the interest of parties who had the disposal of a large amount of railway secur¬ 
ities, and was the recipient of many courtesies from various members of his pro¬ 
fession. He has since been connected, as Consulting Engineer, with the Adirondack 
railroad, extending through the great wilderness of New York from Saratoga Springs 
to Ogdensburg; the North Shore railway of Canada, reaching from Montreal to 
Quebec; the Massachusetts Central railway, extending from Boston to the Hoosac 
tunnel, and the New York, West Shore and Buffalo railway. 


EDWARD DELAVAN SMALLEY, 

« 

D EPUTY State Engineer and Surveyor since 1878, was born in Saratoga county, 
New York, August 24, 1842, and educated at the Troy High School. In 
1861 he obtained a position on the Albany and Susquehanna railroad, then in pro¬ 
cess of construction, and continued the same work on that and other roads for 
six years. In 1867 he resigned this position to accept that of Division Engineer 
on the Ionia and Lansing railroad in Michigan. As soon as this road was com¬ 
pleted, he was engaged in locating the Marshall and Coldwater railroad, and in 
constructing the Detroit and Bay City railroad. The following year, 1872, he was 
appointed Chief Engineer of the Grand Rapids, Greenville and Alpina road. When 
work was suspended on that road, he returned to Utica, New York, and was 
engaged as engineering expert in several important suits. In 1875 he was called 
to verify certain measurements and estimates of Horatio Seymour, Jr., the engineer 
in charge of the canals, at Utica. In 1877, having formed a copartnership with 
G. Edward Cooper, architect, the firm designed and erected Several large public 
buildings in central New York. 

Mr. Smalley was first appointed Deputy State Engineer and Surveyor by Hon. 
Horatio Seymour, Jr., in 1878. He was reappointed in 1880 by Mr. Seymour, 
and in 1882 by Hon. Silas Seymour. 








































THE CANAL DEPARTMENT. 


f HE practicability and expediency of constructing canals to connect Lakes Erie, 
Ontario and Champlain with the Hudson river was discussed for some years 
prior to the organization of a State government, and movement in that direction 
took form soon after the close of the War of the Revolution. At first navigation 
companies were organized, with the view of improving the channels of communica¬ 
tion which, from the earliest times, had been followed by Indian and European. 
By an act passed March 30, 1792, the following commissioners were appointed to 
take subscriptions and issue stock in the Western and Northern Inland Navigation 
Companies, as they were termed, respectively: Samuel Jones, David Gelston, Comfort 
Sands, Melancton Smith and Nicholas Hoffman, in New York; and Abraham Ten 
Broeck, John Tayler, Philip S. Van Rensselaer, Cornelius Glen and John Ten 

Broeck, in Albany. 

The Legislature, by joint resolution adopted March 15, 1810, appointed Gouv- 
erneur Morris, Stephen Van Rensselaer, De Witt Clinton, Simeon De Witt, William 
North, Thomas Eddy and Peter B. Porter a Commission to explore a route for 
a canal to Lake Erie; and on the 8th of April, 1811, Robert R. Livingston and 
Robert Pulton were added to the Commission. The following year, by an act 
passed June 19, 1812, the Commissioners were empowered to purchase the rights 

and interest of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company. By a law passed 
April 15, 1817, the Supreme Court was empowered to appoint a Commission to 

appraise the value of the property, and Richard Varrick, Nathaniel W. Howell, 

William W. Woolsey, Obadiah German and Elisha Jenkins were named as such 

Commission. The amount paid was $152,718.52. 

The first Commissioners of Construction were appointed by an act passed April 
17, 1816, their duties being to construct canals from the Hudson river to Lakes 
Erie and Champlain. The number of these Commissioners and their duties varied 
until, by an amendment to the Constitution adopted in 1876, the office was abol¬ 
ished, and that of Superintendent of Public Works created. 

The Canal Fund was constituted by an act passed April 15, 1817. The Fund 
was to consist “of all such appropriations, grants and donations as may be made 

[247] 


248 


THE CANAL DEPARTMENT. 


for that purpose by the Legislature of this State, by the Congress of the United 
States, by individual States and corporations, companies and individuals;” and the 
Lieutenant-Governor, Comptroller, Attorney-General, Surveyor-General, Secretary of 
State and Treasurer were appointed Commissioners for its management. The mem¬ 
bership, as declared in the Constitution of 1846 and as now existing, omits the 
State Engineer and Surveyor. The Fund is now understood to embrace the canals 
and all property belonging thereto. 

In the construction of the canals, damages necessarily resulted to citizens, and 
in 1825 Canal Appraisers were authorized to be appointed for the appraisal and 
settlement of such damages. Changes occurred from time to time in the laws 
relating to the Board of Canal Appraisers. 

The method of supervising the finances of the canals and of auditing accounts 
for expenses incurred thereon has from time to time changed materially. The 
Auditor of the Canal Department is now the auditing and accounting officer of 
the canals. 

The Canal Board was created by an act passed April 18, 1826, and consisted 
of the Canal Commissioners and Commissioners of the Canal Fund. The State 
Engineer and Surveyor was included in the Board by the Constitution of 1846, 
and in 1876 the Canal Commissioners were succeeded in the Board by the Super¬ 
intendent of Public Works. The Board appoints collectors, remits penalties and 
hears appeals from determinations of the Canal Appraisers as to damages. By 
chapter 55, Laws of 1870, the Canal Board was invested with the full care of, 
and the responsibility for, the management of the canals. At the same time, with 
the concurrence of the Legislature, the toll-sheet was materially reduced, and there¬ 
after further reductions were made. The rates of toll were fixed by the Canal 
Board, with the consent of the Legislature. 

By the amendments to the Constitution, adopted in 1874—article 7, section 
6 — it was provided that thereafter the expenditures for collections, superintendence, 
ordinary and extraordinary repairs on the Erie, Oswego, Champlain, and Cayuga 
and Seneca canals shall not exceed, in any year, their gross receipts for the pre¬ 
vious year. 

By an amendment to the Constitution, adopted at the general election held in 
1882, tolls were abolished and the canals were rendered free to commerce. 


SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC WORKS. 


By SILAS B. DU T CHER 


Tjl^Y an amendment to the Constitution, adopted by the people November 7, 
1876, the office of Canal Commissioner was abolished, that of Superintend¬ 
ent of Public Works created instead thereof, and the duties of the Canal Com¬ 
missioners and of the Board of Canal Commissioners devolved upon the new 
Superintendent. The office, in name, is thus one of recent creation. The Com¬ 
missioners, however, whom the Superintendent supersedes, were coeval with the 
Erie canal. The first Commissioners, five in number, among whom were Stephen 
Van Rensselaer and De Witt Clinton, were appointed by the Legislature, April 17, 
1816, “to consider, devise and adopt such measures as may or shall be requisite 
to facilitate and effect the communication, by means of canals and locks, between 
the navigable waters of Hudson’s river and Lake Erie, and the said navigable 
waters and Lake Champlain.” Under the direction of these men and the suc¬ 
cessors of two of them, the Erie canal was built. As the canals were completed, 
the Commissioners were continued in office and intrusted with their care, manage¬ 
ment and repairs. The number of the Commissioners varied and their appointment 
was without definite character, vacancies being filled by the Legislature and no term 
of office being stated, until 1844, when, by the act of March 6, their number was 
reduced to four, to be elected by the people for four years. 

There had long existed by statute a distinction between acting Commissioners, 
so called, and non-acting Commissioners, it having been directed by the Revised 
Statutes of 1827 that not exceeding two of the Commissioners should be desig¬ 
nated annually by the Board as acting Commissioners. Each of the acting Com¬ 
missioners was intrusted with the immediate care of a distinct part of the canals, 
and thus given additional powers as administrative officers; while the non-acting 
Commissioners simply had a voice in the deliberations of the Board. March 25, 
1833, an additional Commissioner was appointed and the number to be designated 
annually as acting Commissioners was increased to three. By statute of May 25, 
1836, an additional acting Commissioner was directed to be elected. Under the 

[249] 


3 2 


250 


SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC WORKS. 


act of 1844 it was the duty of the four Canal Commissioners elected under this act 
to designate three of their number as acting Commissioners. 

The Constitution of 1846 did away with this distinction. It provided for the 
election of three Canal Commissioners; the first three elected to hold office respect¬ 
ively one, two and three years, as determined by the Canal Board by lot; and 

thereafter one was to be elected each year, to hold office for the term of three 

years. All were acting Commissioners, and, the canals being divided into three 
divisions, each Commissioner had charge of a division. This continued to be the 
executive management of the canals until the constitutional amendment of 1876. 

The occasion of the change of system effected by that amendment was the 

need long felt of one administrative head. in canal management, to the end that 
by placing the responsibility upon one man there would result greater efficiency of 
service and a more clearly defined policy. This change was proposed by the Con¬ 
stitutional Convention of 1867, but the measure failed with the defeat of the 

Constitution proposed by that Convention. 

Under the amendment of 1876, the Superintendent of Public Works succeeded 
generally to all the duties of the Canal Commissioners and of the Board of Canal 
Commissioners, and, by reason of such succession, he became a member of the 
Canal Board. He is the chief executive of the canals. He is charged with the 
execution of all laws relating to the repair and navigation of the canals, except as 
their execution shall be specially intrusted to the State Engineer and Surveyor. 
Subject to the control of the Legislature, he makes the rules for the navigation 
or use of the canals. He is appointed by the Governor, with the consent of the 
Senate, and holds office until the end of the term of the Governor by whom he 
was appointed, and until the appointment of his successor. He may be removed by 
the Governor for cause. He is required to give a bond in the sum of $50,000 
for the faithful execution of his trust. In analogy with the old system, as existing 
under the Constitution of 1846, each of the three divisions is under the more imme¬ 
diate management of an Assistant Superintendent. These Assistant Superintendents 
hold office for three years. They and all other persons employed in the care and 
management of the canals, except collectors of tolls and persons employed in the 
department of the State Engineer and Surveyor, are appointed by the Superintend¬ 
ent, and are subject to suspension or removal by him. 

The salary of a Canal Commissioner under the act of 1844 was $1,500; under 
the Constitution of 1846 it was $2,000; and in 1875 it was increased to $4,000. 
The salary of the Superintendent of Public Works was fixed by the act of 1877 
at $6,000, and that of each of his assistants at $3,000. He has an office in the 
State Hall, and employs several clerks. He reports annually to the Legislature. 









CUlS\ 





SILAS BELDEN DUTCHER, 


SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC WORKS, 

W AS born of American parentage, of English and German descent, at Spring- 
field, Otsego county, New York, July 12, 1829. He attended the public 
schools and, for a short time, the Oneida Conference Seminary at Cazenovia, and 
at the age of sixteen commenced teaching school. For six years he continued to 
teach during the winter months, spending the summers in working on a farm. He 
afterward became interested in railroad business, which he pursued until his twenty- 
fifth year, when he removed to New York city where he was engaged in mercantile 
pursuits until the year 1868. 

Mr. Dutcher has interested himself deeply in educational matters and for four 
years was a member of the Brooklyn Board of Education. He also engaged 
in Sabbath School work in that city as teacher and Assistant Superintendent in 
the Sabbath School connected with the Twelfth Street Reformed Church. For 
five years previous to his removal to Albany he was Superintendent of the same 
school, and when he resigned the Superintendency it was the largest Sunday School 
in the State. A Whig in politics previous to 1856, Mr. Dutcher has since that date 
been an active supporter of the Republican party, and without solicitation on his 
part has been called to many public positions of usefulness and honor. He acted 
as Chairman of the Young Men’s Republican Committee in 1858 and 1859, and 

as Chairman of the Wide Awake Committee in i860. He was Chairman of the 
Kings County Republican Committee four years, and a member of the Republican 
State Committee six years. In i860 and 1861 he was a Supervisor of the city and 
county of New York, from 1868 to 1872 Supervisor of Internal Revenue, and 

from 1872 until 1875 United States Pension Agent. Mr. Dutcher was the candi¬ 

date for Congress in the Second District in 1870, and the candidate for Register of 
Kings county in 1873. In 1877 he was appointed Appraiser of the Port of New 
York, and held that position until 1880, when he removed to Albany and entered 
upon the duties of his present office as Superintendent of Public Works. 


[ 251 ] 


JAMES D. HANCOCK, 

O F Schenectady, Assistant Superintendent of Public Works, was born in Berk¬ 
shire county, Massachusetts, March 29, 1824, of Scotch and Puritan parentage. 
Educated in the public schools of New England, he early entered upon a business 
life — first as contracting builder and since as general contractor on public works. 
He was elected Alderman of Schenectady in 1874, and served three years. 


WILLIAM V. VAN RENSSELAER, 

O F Seneca Falls, Assistant Superintendent of Public Works, is a son of Henry 
J. Van Rensselaer of Claverack, Columbia county, and of Mary E. Sacket, 
daughter of Judge Gary V. Sacket of Seneca Falls, New York. He was born in 
Seneca Falls, December 26, 1838. He graduated at the Seneca Falls Academy 
and studied civil engineering. He is a civil engineer and also a farmer. For three 
years he was an officer in the Fiftieth New York Volunteer Engineers, in the 
Army of the Potomac. 


OSSIAN BEDELL, 

O F Grand Island, Assistant Superintendent of Public Works, was born June 6, 
1830, in Georgia, Franklin county, Vermont. His parents descended from 
the French, but were both natives of Vermont. He received a common school 
education and commenced active life as a boatman on the Erie canal, which, with 
lumbering during the winters, occupied his time for twenty years. At the expiration 
of this time he engaged in farming. A Republican in politics, he was elected 
Supervisor of the town of Grand Island in 1861 and 1862, and from 1867 to 
1880 he held the office of Inspector of Customs. 

[252] 


CANAL APPRAISERS. 


By WILLIAM J, MORGAN. 


HE extensive resort to the right of eminent domain for the taking of private 
lands which has been necessary in the prosecution of a work of the mag¬ 
nitude of the canal system of the State, has, from the first, given prominence to 
the provision thereby made necessary for the determination and adjustment of the 
compensation to be paid to land-owners. Prior to the creation of a permanent 
board of State officers for the determination of claims made on account of land 
damages, various devices were resorted to for that purpose. Under the original 
act of April 15, 1817, whereby the Canal Commissioners were authorized to take 
lands necessary for the proposed canals, provision was made for the appointment, 

by any two justices of the Supreme Court, of not less than three discreet, disin¬ 
terested persons as appraisers, to estimate and certify the damages to owners or 
parties interested, by such taking. By a clause in the appropriation bill of 1821 
it was made the duty of the acting Canal Commissioners, or any two of them, to 
act as appraisers of damages accruing by reason of the taking of lands for canal 
purposes. The same law repealed a prior act of the same session empowering 
the two houses of the Legislature, by concurrent resolution, to appoint nine 
Appraisers, three for each of the two general divisions of the Erie canal, as then 
existing, and three for the Champlain canal—a system of appraisal somewhat anal¬ 
ogous to that now existing, in so far as it provided for a board of permanent 
officials for the determination of damages. The appraisal, under the law of 1821, 

was subject to revision by the Supreme Court, and might be set aside if not 

deemed just and equitable. 

April 20, 1825, the Governor was authorized to appoint, with the consent of 
the Senate, two freeholders to be associated with one of the acting Canal Com¬ 

missioners as Appraisers of claims for damages by reason of the canals. They 
were to be paid three dollars for each day’s actual service. Provision was made 
in this act for an appeal by the claimants to the Board of Canal Commissioners. 
The Revised Statutes of 1827 continued this system, but the Supreme Court was 

[ 253 1 


254 


CANAL APPRAISERS. 


made the appellate tribunal, and authority was conferred upon the Canal Commis¬ 
sioners to enter appeals in the interest of the State. By the same article each 
acting Canal Commissioner was authorized to determine the damages to be paid for 
the temporary occupation of lands for canal purposes on his particular division; 
and a crude system of arbitration by freeholders, specially summoned, for the 
appraisal of the damages, when they could not be determined by agreement, was 
provided for. 

All these methods, however, proved unsatisfactory. The large number of claim¬ 
ants by reason of the extensive enlargement and repair of old, and the building 
of new, canals and feeders, demanded a more prompt determination of claims and 
more systematic methods. It was thought that these results could be best attained 

by the establishment of a separate department. In obedience to this sentiment, May 

io, 1836, the Legislature provided by law for the appointment by the Governor, with 
the consent of the Senate, of three Canal Appraisers, to whom ample power was 
given to summon witnesses, to employ counsel on behalf of the State, and to 
appraise damages not agreed upon for temporary occupation ; the law also provided 
for an appeal on the part of the State or the claimant to the Canal Board. 

Under this act the term of office was two years. April 15, 1857, the term was 
increased to three years, and provision was made for the appointment thereafter 
of one Appraiser each year. Under the act of 1836 the Appraisers were each 

allowed a compensation of four dollars per day and mileage. Under the act of 
1857 they were paid an annual salary of $2,000 and mileage. In 1872 the salary 
was increased to $5,000, and each Appraiser allowed his expenses. 

The Appraisers constitute an itinerant court, sitting in places most convenient 
for claimants and witnesses. By chapter 321 of the Laws of 1870, their jurisdic¬ 
tion was greatly extended by giving them authority to hear and determine, generally, 
claims for damages sustained because of the canals, by their management and use, or 
by the negligence of officials. They thus acted both for the State and for claimants 
in all cases where, as between individuals, a question of legal liability could arise. 
Damages, prior to that time, were only awarded for the actual taking or occupation 
of lands. 

The Appraisers have an office in the State Hall, and employ several clerks. 
They report annually to the Legislature. During the fiscal year ending September 
30, 1880, the gross sum of $32,805.22 was awarded to claimants. 













WILLIAM J. MORGAN, 

CANAL APPRAISER, 

O F Buffalo, Chairman of the Board of Canal Appraiser, was born in Peterboro, 
Ontario, Canada, October 16, 1840, of English parentage. His academic 

education was obtained at the Buffalo High School. August 17, 1862, when not 
twenty-two years of age, he enlisted as private in the One Hundred and Sixteenth 
New York Volunteers, was promoted to Second Lieutenant, First Lieutenant and 
Captain, successively, and was mustered out with his regiment in June, 1865. He 
participated in eight battles, among which were those of Plains Store, siege of 
Port Hudson, Sabine Cross Roads, Winchester, Fisher’s Hill and Cedar Creek. He 
commanded the Forlorn Hope in the assault on Port Hudson, May 27, 1863, and 
received four severe wounds. Mr. Morgan is a Republican, and cast his first vote 
for President Lincoln. Since the close of the war, he occupied for four years the 
position of Entry Deputy in the Buffalo Custom House. In 1880 he was appointed 
Canal Appraiser by Governor Cornell, and he is now Chairman of the State Board. 
He is also one of the editors of the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser 


WILLIAM R. BOSTWICK, 

CANAL APPRAISER, 

TS also a Regent of the University of the State of New York. His biography 
* will be found at page 184 of the third volume of The Public Service of 
the State of New York. 


[ 255 ] 


CHARLES M. DENNISON, 


CANAL APPRAISER, 

W AS born at Floyd, Oneida county, New York, April 3, 1824. He resides 
in Utica. Mr. Dennison is of New England ancestry, being a descendant 

of Captain George Dennison, who settled at Stonington, Connecticut, about the year 
1645. Reared on a farm until fifteen years of age, he received his education in 
schools at Whitestown, Clinton and Holland Patent, obtaining with a preparatory 
education some knowledge of the classics. He subsequently studied law, was 
admitted to the bar and is at present engaged in the active practice of his profes¬ 
sion. Mr. Dennison is a Republican, and has taken an active part in county, State 
and National Conventions. From 1862 to 1870 he was United States Assessor of 
Internal Revenue of the Twenty-first District, and in 1871 he was appointed United 
States Circuit Court Commissioner and Chief Supervisor of Elections — which 
positions he still retains. In May, 1880, he was appointed Canal Appraiser. 


DE WITT J. APGAR, 


C LERK of the Board of Canal Appraisers, was born June 22, 1839, in Ithaca, 
Tompkins county, New York. After receiving the education afforded by the 

common schools and the academy of his native city, he entered upon the business 

of a journalist. An earnest Republican and loyal patriot, he enlisted in defense 
of the country October 8, 1862, and continued in active service until the civil war 
was ended. His energy and ability caused him to be rapidly promoted through 

the various grades to Colonel. He participated in all the famous battles of the 

Eleventh Corps, Army of the Potomac, and of the Twentieth Corps under General 
Sherman, from Chattanooga to the sea, and was mustered out of service with his 
regiment July '20, 1865. From 1868 to 1872 he was Assistant Assessor of Internal 
Revenue, and in 1880 he was appointed to his present position. 

[256] 


AUDITOR OF THE CANAL DEPARTMENT 


By JOHN A. PLACE. 


-f 

j|TOR many years, the Comptroller was the accounting officer of the canals. 
( ^Jj The importance of the canals increasing and the details of their fiscal con¬ 
cerns growing more extensive, he was allowed, by act of the Legislature March n, 
1833, to appoint a Second Deputy Comptroller to perform his duties as such 
accounting officer. May 13, 1840, this office was abolished, and the Commissioners 
of the Canal Fund were authorized to appoint a Chief Clerk who should also act 
as Clerk of the Canal Board, and perform the duties previously discharged by the 
Second Deputy Comptroller. By an act of the Legislature, passed May 25, 1841, 
it was provided that all business relating to the canals and to canal improvements 
required to be performed by the Commissioners of the Canal Fund, the Canal 
Board and the Comptroller, should thereafter be transacted in rooms appropriated 
for that purpose in the State Hall, to be denominated the Canal Department; 
and that the Chief Clerk then authorized to be appointed by the Commissioners 
of the Canal Fund should be known and recognized in law as Chief Clerk of said 
department. A subsequent act of the Legislature, passed April 3, 1848, abolished 
the office of Chief Clerk, and created the office of Auditor of the Canal Department. 

Upon this new official devolved all the powers and duties of the Chief Clerk, 
and all the powers and duties of the Comptroller relating to the canals—excepting 
the functions of the latter as a Commissioner of the Canal Fund —together with 
the executive powers and duties of the Commissioners of the Canal Fund; and 
it was further provided that the Auditor should also act as Secretary of the Com¬ 
missioners of the Canal Fund and as Secretary of the Canal Board. By this act 
the Auditor was given powers much more extensive than those previously exercised 
by the Comptroller or the Chief Clerk. From 1817 to 1848 no canal moneys were 
paid into the treasury. During that period all moneys received on account of 
tolls, and from loans or otherwise, were deposited in banks to the credit of the 
Commissioners of the Canal Fund and paid out on their checks, which were required 
to be signed by at least three Commissioners. The law of’ 1848 provided that 

[257] 


258 


AUDITOR OF THE CANAL DEPARTMENT. 


all canal moneys should be paid into the treasury; and the Auditor was authorized 
to draw his warrant on the Treasurer for all moneys which previously were author¬ 
ized to be paid or advanced by the Commissioners of the Canal Fund. 

The Auditor is the auditing and chief accounting officer of the canals. He 
draws his warrant on the Treasurer for expenditures on account of the Canal Fund, 
and issues instructions to canal collecting and disbursing- officers. He makes, 
annually, three reports to the Legislature : 1. Of the receipts and payments on 

account of the canals and canal debt, under chapter 177, Laws of 1861. 2. On 

tolls, trade and tonnage of the canals, under chapter 162, Laws of 1848. 3. On 

expenditures on the canals. He is appointed by the Governor, with the consent 
of the Senate, and holds office for three years. In his office are preserved the 

records of the Commissioners of the Canal Fund and of the Canal Board; and 

there the Commissioners of the Canal Fund and of the Canal Board meet for the 
transaction of business. He has been allowed a deputy since 1861. Prior to 1861 
the duties of deputy were discharged by an Acting Auditor. During the existence 
of the Contracting Board the Auditor was one of its members, being appointed by 
chapter 783 of the Laws of 1857, in the place of the Comptroller, originally named. 

In 1875 the Auditor was made, ex officio, a Commissioner of the New Capitol, in 
which capacity he is charged with large responsibilities and exercises important powers. 

The salary of the Auditor is $5,000, that of his deputy $3,500, and the sum 
of $15,000 was appropriated in 1881 for deputy and clerk hire in his office. 

In view of the adoption of the amendment to the Constitution rendering the 
canals free, the following statements will be of more than ordinary interest : 


STATEMENT of Receipts — including tolls received from railroads — and Payments on account of all the 
State canals to the close of the fiscal year ending September 30, 1882. 


From what Source. 

Receipts. 

For what Purpose. 

Payments. 

Avails of loans, ..... 

$65,615,146 65 

Principal of loans, .... 

$55,752,191 81 

Avails of canal revenue certificates. 

1,512,390 75 

Premium on purchase and investment of 


Temporary loans, - 

3,406,467 00 

stock, ...... 

743,611 02 

Tolls,. 

134,566,107 77 

Temporary loans, .... 

3.406,467 00 

Taxes—not including levy of 1882, 

39> OI 5>444 43 

Interest on loans, ..... 

47,246,868 39 

Vendue duty, ..... 

3,592,039 05 

To Canal Commissioners and Superin- 


Salt duty, ...... 

2,055,458 06 

tendent of Public Works on account 


Steamboat tax, ..... 

73,509 99 

of construction, improvement and 


Sales of land, ..... 

320,518 15 

ordinary repairs, .... 

84,043,752 22 

Interest on deposits and investments, 

6,068,951 13 

Seneca Lock Navigation Company, - 

53,871 88 

Rent of surplus water, .... 

138,823 73 

Black River canal for Erie canal feeder. 

290,097 66 

General Fund — for deficiencies of the 


General Fund— for advances and support 


lateral canals, .... 

1,386,498 88 

of government, .... 

5 , 015,774 60 

Erie and Champlain canals—for defi- 


General Fund debt, principal and interest, 

13,834,637 34 

ciencies of the lateral canals, - 

10,486,359 62 

Deficiencies of the lateral canals, 

10,486,359 62 

for Black River canal and Erie canal 


Oneida Lake canal and feeder, 

50,000 OO 

feeder, ..... 

290,097 66 

Contractors, for repairs, ... 

8,147,809 to 

Miscellaneous, ..... 

2,939,442 44 

Superintendents, for repairs, ... 

28,080,8^0 67 



Expenses of collectors and inspectors, 

3,074,672 57 


$271,467,255 31 

Weigh-masters, ..... 

407,519 75 



Miscellaneous, ..... 

7,138,049 09 



Balance in treasury and invested, - 

3,694,722 59 




$271,467,255 31 























AUDITOR OF THE CANAL DEPARTMENT. 


259 


STATEMENT showing the total revenues from tolls, interest on toll deposits, and miscellaneous sources; the 
total expenditures for superintendence, collection and ordinary repairs; the profit or loss in operating each 
canal; and total cost of construction — exclusive of interest paid on canal loans — to the close of the fiscal 
year ending September 30, 1882. 


CANALS. 

A 

Revenues. 

• 

Cost of collection, 
superintendence 
and ordinary 
repairs. 

Loss in 
operating. 

Profit in 
operating. 

Cost of 
construction. 

Baldwinsville canal, ... 

$1,261 48 

$18,038 58 

$16,777 10 


$31,000 52 

Black River canal, ... 

301,098 63 

1,552,229 96 

1,251,131 33 

- 

3,894,952 39 

Cayuga inlet, - 

8,837 02 

993 63 

- 

$7,843 39 

2,020 OO 

Cayuga and Seneca canal, 

1.054,355 96 

1,027,538 57 

- 

26,817 39 

1,834,184 40 

Chemung canal, - 

* 525,565 29 

2,022,258 99 

1,496,693 70 

- 

1,463,585 07 

Chenango canal, ... 

744,027 n 

2,081,738 85 

i, 337 , 7 n 74 

- 

4,789.470 58 

Crooked Lake canal, ... 

45 , 49 ° 4 i 

424,658 44 

379,168 03 

- 

395,091 54 

Erie and Champlain canals, 

127,878,212 46 

34,900,324 55 

- 

92,977,887 91 

54,505,148 47 

Genesee Valley canal, 

860,164 7 8 

2,814,808 67 

1,954,643 89 

- 

6,737,430 56 

Oneida Lake canal. 

65,893 76 

144,060 60 

78,166 84 

- 

511,649 36 

Oneida river improvement, 

217,100 36 

41,170 47 

- 

175,929 89 

224,072 33 

Oswego canal, ... 

3,708,547 74 

3,371,446 14 

- 

337,101 60 

4,295,372 56 

Seneca river towing path, - 

7,770 10 

19 54 

" 

7,750 56 

1,602 65 


$135,418,325 10 

$ 48 , 399, 2 86 99 

$6,514,292 63 

$93,533,330 74 

$78,685,580 93 


























PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 


By NEIL GIL M OUR. 



"EW YORK early appreciated the importance of popular, elementary education. 
Its policy, from almost the commencement of the State organization, has, in 
this respect, been broad and liberal.* Though the first free school law was not 
enacted until 1849, an d was repealed in 1851, and not permanently revived until 
1867, such provision was, long before that, made by the Legislature, as to practi¬ 
cally bring an elementary education within the reach of the children of its poorest 
citizens. In 1795 the sum of $50,000, annually, for five years, was appropriated 
for common school purposes, and in 1805 the net proceeds of five hundred thousand 
acres of unappropriated State lands, first thereafter sold, were directed to be set 
aside as a permanent common school fund, the annual income of which, in 1826, 

had reached the sum of $100,000, which sum was distributed that year. 

In 1812 a common school system was established under the direct supervision of 
the State, according to a plan devised by five Commissioners, appointed for that 
purpose, the year before; and this system, under the State’s fostering care, has 

grown into an institution yearly increasing in importance, and deemed as much within 
the legitimate province of the State government as any of its fiscal concerns. The 
office of Superintendent of Common Schools was created when the system of 1812 
was established. The duties of the Superintendent were to prepare plans for the 
improvement and management of the common school fund, to superintend its distri¬ 
bution and the collection of school moneys, and, generally, to render all such services 
relative to the welfare of the schools as he should be directed to perform. The 
Superintendent was chosen by the Council of Appointment. The system thus inau¬ 
gurated by the act of 1812 is the skeleton of that which now exists, the main 
difference being the present provision by local taxation, instead of by rate bill, for 

meeting such expense of maintaining the schools as is in excess of the revenues 

of the school fund. But in the distribution of the State aid, the general care of 


* A history of Primary Education in the Colony and State, by Daniel J. Pratt, Ph. D., will be found in Volume III, 
pages 99-127. 

[ 260] 




DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 


261 


the Superintendent over the common schools, the division of the State into school 
districts, the election of local officers for school purposes, and in the authority exer¬ 
cised by them in the local oversight of school matters, the plan remains substantially 
the same as in the first organization of the system. 

By a section in the supply bill of 1821, the office of Superintendent of Common 
Schools was abolished and the duties performed by him were assigned to the Secre¬ 
tary of State. The Secretary, however, in his relations as the head of the common 
school system, continued to be known and recognized by the statutes, by the title of 
Superintendent of Common Schools, as long as the duties of the office were per¬ 
formed by him. By the act of May 26, 1841, the appointment of a General Deputy, 
so called, was authorized; and Samuel S. Randall, who for some time had been a 
clerk in the educational department of the Secretary’s office, was named for the 
position. 

The growing appreciation of the need of popular education under efficient State 
control, the increase in the number of schools and school officers, and the establish¬ 
ment of the State Normal School and of teachers’ classes in academies, had, in 1854, 
given to the head of the common school system too much importance to be longer 
merged in another department, and by the act of March 31st of that year, the office 
of State Superintendent of Public Instruction was created. Upon that officer then 
devolved all the duties relating to schools previously performed by the Secretary of 
State, and the charge of the books, papers and documents appertaining to school 
matters, then preserved in the Secretary’s office. The department has remained, 
since, substantially as then organized. The Superintendent is elected by joint ballot 
of the two Houses of the Legislature for the term of three years. He is author¬ 
ized to appoint a Deputy; and in case of vacancy in the office of Superintendent 
the Deputy performs the duties of the office until the day after the first Tuesday 
in April next after the occurrence of the vacancy. In case the office of both 
Superintendent and Deputy becomes vacant the Governor appoints some person to 
fill the office, until the Superintendent is elected and assumes it. The Superin¬ 
tendent performs duties in the distribution of the income of the common school 
fund, analogous to those required of the old Superintendent of Common Schools. 
He is, ex-officio, a Trustee of Cornell University, of the New York Asylum for 
Idiots, a Regent of the University, and Chairman of the committee on teachers’ 

classes in academies. He has general supervision of all the Normal Schools, except 

the New York State Normal School, at Albany; and of the Executive Committee 
of the Regents who have charge of the Albany School, he is also ex-officio chairman. 

It is his duty to visit and inspect the institutions for the instruction of the deaf 

and dumb, the New York Institution for the Blind, and all similar institutions; and 
he is authorized to make appointments of pupils to be maintained therein at the 


262 


DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 


expense of the State. He has general control and management of Teachers’ Insti¬ 
tutes, and establishes rules concerning district school libraries. 

The Nautical School in the city of New York reports annually to him. He 
visits the common schools and inquires into their course of instruction, management 
and discipline; has power to grant, on examination, certificates of qualification to 

teach therein; and for violation or neglect of duty or disobedience to his order, to 
suspend or remove School Commissioners and other school officers. He has the 
general care and superintendence of the Indian schools of the State. He hears and 
determines, under rules of practice made by him, appeals on the part of any person 

aggrieved in consequence of any decision made by any school meeting, by local 

officers, or by any official act concerning any matter under the school laws. His 

decision is declared by law to be final and not subject to review in any place or 
court whatever. Of all these matters and his proceedings therein he is required 
to report annually to the Legislature. From the wide discretion which he exercises 
and the large interests intrusted to his care, the Superintendent of Public Instruction 
is one of the most important officers under the State government. 

The salary of the Superintendent of Common Schools was fixed in the original 
Act at $300. Subsequently it was raised to $400, and then to $700; at which figure 
it remained until the duties of the office were assigned to the Secretary of State. 
By the Act of 1854, creating the office as now organized, the salary was fixed at 
$2,500. Since 1875 the salary has been fixed by law at $5,000, the compensation 
of the Superintendent having amounted to that sum for several years by reason 
of the insertion of an additional item of $2,500 besides the salary in the annual 
appropriation bill. The Deputy Superintendent is also allowed $3,500; and $9,220 
was appropriated in 1881 for clerk hire in this department. 


Superintendents of Common Schools. 

GIDEON HAWLEY, - - - 1813-21. WELCOME ESLEECK - - - 1821. 

General Deputies (Under Secretary of State). 

SAMUEL S. RANDALL, - - 1841-6. SAMUEL S. RANDALL, - - 1849-52. 

SAMUEL L. HOLMES, - - - 1846-8. HENRY W. JOHNSON, - - 1853-54. 

ALEXANDER G. JOHNSON, - 1848-9. SAMUEL S. RANDALL, - - 1854. 

Superintendents of Public Instruction. 

VICTOR M. RICE, - - - 1854-57. VICTOR M. RICE, - - - 1862-68. 

HENRY H. VAN DYCK, - - 1857-61. ABRAM B. WEAVER, - - - 1868-74. 

EMERSON W. KEYES, Act'g, - 1861-62. NEIL GILMOUR, - - 1874-83. 


THE BANKING DEPARTMENT. 


By A. B. HEPBURN. 


m NTIL the passage of the “free banking” law, April 18, 1838, the business of 
t banking in this State was authorized only by special charter. By the act 
passed April 2, 1829, provision was made for the creation of a fund denominated 
the “Bank Fund,” now generally known as the “Safety Fund,” and for the appoint¬ 
ment of three Commissioners, whose duty it was, at stated periods, to examine all 
moneyed corporations having banking powers, and report to the Legislature. This 
fund and the Commissioners provided for under the same law constitute the germ 
of the present department. 

All banking corporations were required to pay each year to the Treasurer of 
the State one-half of one per cent on their capital stock, until the fund, thus 
paid in, amounted to three per cent on their whole capital. The fund was to 
be permanent, the amount being kept at this maximum by annual payments of 
half of one per cent, when necessary, as security for the payment of the debts 
of insolvent banks. The Comptroller and Treasurer were required to keep separate 
accounts; and it was the duty of the Comptroller to keep the fund invested. 
The income was to be paid to the banks in proportion to the payments of each, 
after defraying the salaries of the three Commissioners and other expenses. The 
banks were allowed to issue notes to an amount equal to twice the sum of their 
capital. One of the Commissioners was appointed by the Governor, with the 
consent of the Senate, and two were appointed by the banks, according to 
geographical location; the banks located in the first, second and third Senate dis¬ 
tricts, as then constituted, appointing one, and those in the remaining five districts, 
appointing the other. The salary of each Commissioner was originally $1,500. In 
1837, the appointment of all three was given to the Governor and Senate, and 
the salary fixed at $2,000. A fourth Commissioner was added in 1840, and banks 
organized under the general banking law of 1838 were placed under the super¬ 
vision of the Commissioners. Machinery more cumbersome and less adapted for 

the object in view — the protection of bill-holders and creditors — it would seem, 

[263] 


264 


THE BANKING DEPARTMENT. 


could hardly have been devised. And so the event proved. The fund was 
exhausted long before the bills, to secure which it was created, had been redeemed. 
Through the inefficiency and mismanagement of bank officials, there were extensive 
fraudulent issues; and it is stated that, in 1843, eleven insolvent banks that had 
contributed but $86,282 to the fund had occasioned drafts upon it to the amount 
of $2,577,927. 

Banks organized under the general banking act of 1838 were allowed to issue 
circulating notes only to an amount equal to the stocks arid bonds deposited with 
the Comptroller for their security. One-half of these securities were permitted to 
be approved real estate mortgages, but the remainder must be stocks of this State 
or the United States, or certain approved States. Under these provisions circulating 
notes were well secured, banks prospered and New York’s banking system ranked 
very high. And when a National currency was provided by act of Congress, New 
York’s banking laws formed the base and substance of such act. State circulation 
disappeared upon the imposition of a ten per cent tax by the United States in 1862. 

The Commissioners were abolished April 18, 1843, an d thereafter the banks 
were required to report quarterly to the Comptroller, to whose charge were com¬ 
mitted all bank-note plates, and by whom all notes thereafter issued were required 
to be countersigned and registered; he was also authorized to cause any bank to 
be examined “ whenever he shall have good and sufficient reason to suspect the 
condition of any bank or the correctness of its quarterly report.” It was provided, 
by the same act, that all notes issued prior to July 1, 1843, should be redeemed 
and destroyed. 

The Bank Department and the office of Superintendent of the Banking Depart¬ 
ment, as now existing, were created by chapter 164 of the Laws of 1851. 

The Superintendent is charged with the execution of the laws relating to the 
incorporated banks subject to the act of 1829, and to banking associations and indi¬ 
vidual bankers doing business under the general act of 1838. In addition to the 
classes of banks just named, Savings Banks, Trust Companies, Mortgage, Loan and 
Indemnity Companies and Safe Deposit Companies, have successively been placed 
under his supervision; also a class of corporations known as Mutual Aid, Loan 
Accumulating Fund Associations, etc. All such report to him, and he reports, 
annually, to the Legislature. He is required to examine at regular periods, and 
oftener if in his judgment it is necessary, all of these corporations save Discount 

Banks. The Superintendent is appointed by the Governor, with the consent of the 

Senate, for three years, and is paid a salary of $5,000; in 1881, the sum of $12,000 

was appropriated for salaries of deputy examiners and clerks and for other expenses. 

The expenses of the department, including salaries, are borne by the corporations 
and associations placed under its supervision. 


THE INSURANCE DEPARTMENT 


By CHARLES G. FAIRMAN. 


HE Insurance Department was established as a distinct administrative branch 
Vy of the State government April 15, 1859, an d went into operation January 1, 
i860. It had its inception in the necessity for a stricter enforcement of the laws 
relating to insurance companies than the Comptroller, amid the growing responsi¬ 
bilities of his office, could give them. The need of a separate department for the 
examination and regulation of such companies was plainly seen. 

Prior to the passage of the general insurance law of 1849, insurance companies 
were incorporated only by special act. The genius of the times, in deference to 
which the free banking law of 1838 was passed, found expression in the Constitution 
of 1846, article seven of which provided that corporations should be formed there¬ 
after only under general laws, and no longer by special acts. To carry this provision 
into operation the act of 1849 was passed. The change thus wrought in the organic 
law was largely instrumental in bringing about the establishment of the Insurance 
Department. For while the popular feeling against the conferring of exclusive privi¬ 
leges was satisfied, and thereafter any thirteen persons with the requisite capital 
could form a corporation and, without personal liability, participate in the enjoyment 
of the franchise of making insurance upon property, there was lost the sense of 
direct responsibility of the companies to the Legislature and the cautious oversight 
exercised by the latter over its own creatures which it had clothed with rights of 
an exclusive character. The meager authority, conferred upon the Comptroller, over 
the organization and management of the corporations formed under the general act, 
was insufficient to replace the supervision that existed under special charters. The 
same necessity, therefore, that gave rise to the Bank Department under the working 
of the free banking law a few years before, now demanded a separate department 
for the supervision of insurance corporations. 

If we may believe the testimony of contemporaneous records, its establishment 
came none too soon. “The establishment of an Insurance Department coeval 
with the passage of the general act of 1849,” sa Y s Superintendent Barnes in his 

34 f. 26 5 l 


266 


THE INSURANCE DEPARTMENT. 


first report after its organization, “would have saved our people millions of dollars 
by the prompt enforcement of existing laws, and by refusing to organize unsound 
stock companies and that numerous class of illegitimate ‘ Mutuals,’ whose history 
has almost invariably been one of mismanagement, corruption and fraud.” The 
career of these mutual companies is graphically described in the Comptroller’s 
Report to the Legislature for the year 1854. The earlier organization of the 
Department would, no doubt, have resulted in an earlier comprehension of many 
problems of insurance economy, and might, perhaps, have sooner put an end to 
that particularly baneful practice of mutual companies, aptly styled “ the paying of 
the losses of to-day with the premiums of to-morrow,” a practice for many years 
so fruitful in disaster. 

The increasing importance of the Life Assurance business, which has since 
grown to great dimensions, had also much to do with the organization of the 
Department. 

The Superintendent is appointed by the Governor, with the advice and consent 
of the Senate, for a term of three years. He has the general supervision of the 
insurance companies, fire, marine, life and accident, transacting business in this State; 
and is required annually to report their condition to the Legislature, with a state¬ 
ment of the expenditures of his Department. These expenses, including salaries, 
are paid in the first instance by the Comptroller, but are reimbursed to the State 
by fees charged upon the corporations subject to the supervision of the Depart¬ 
ment. The Superintendent must not be, directly or indirectly, interested in any 
insurance company, and he is required to give a bond in the sum of $25,000. 
His salary, originally $2,500, was raised to $5,000 in 1861, and to $7,000 in 1868. 
He has a deputy who receives a salary of $4,500, and some thirty clerks. For the 
expenses of the Department, including salaries for the year commencing October 
1, 1881, the sum of $97,000 was appropriated The power of the Superintendent 
over insurance interests is very great. 


Hon. JOHN A. PLACE, 


AUDITOR OF THE CANAL DEPARTMENT, 


( 7 \ ND Member and Treasurer of the New Capitol Commission, was born at 
^ Foster, Providence county, Rhode Island, f'ebruary 25, 1822. His ancestors, 
who \vere of English birth, settled in Rhode Island soon after the arrival of 
Roger Williams at Providence. Educated in the common schools and by private 
study, Mr. Place commenced teaching at the age of twenty-one years and continued 
to teach for five years, at the same time contributing articles to the newspapers. 
He was editor of a weekly paper for nearly twelve years and editor-in-chief of the 
Oswego Times for sixteen years, from 1864 to 1880, contributing the commercial, 
business and political editorials to that paper. Mr. Place is thoroughly identified 
with the interests of Oswego, where he resides, and has always been active in 
promoting the prosperity of that city. He was for many years Secretary of the 
Oswego County Agricultural Society, and was Secretary and one of the founders of 
the Oswego Falls Agricultural Society, one of the most successful of similar organ¬ 
izations in the State. He was School Commissioner for seven years, from 1857 to 
1864, and during his term of office did much to improve the condition of the com¬ 
mon schools and to elevate the standard of qualification of the teachers. In politics 
Mr. Place was originally an anti-slavery Democrat. He took an active interest in 
the “Free Soil” movement of 1848, and on the organization of the Republican party 
became one of its most ardent supporters. He has been an active member of the 
Republican State Committee, a frequent delegate to Republican State Conventions, 
and has been especially prominent and effective in promoting the interests of the 
Republican party in his own county and section of the State. He represented his 
district in the Assembly in 1868; was Assessor of Internal Revenue in 1871; 
Postmaster of the city of Oswego from 1872 to 1877, and was appointed Auditor 
by Governor Cornell and confirmed by the Senate in 1880. 


[ 26 U 


Hon. NEIL GILMOUR, 

STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, 

W AS born in Ralston, near Paisley in Scotland, January 18, 1840. His parents 
were both of pure Scotch ancestry. He received a thorough preparation 
for college at “the John Neilson,” one of the best institutions in Paisley; but 
when ready to enter upon university life he found himself without the means of 
meeting the expense. He decided to come to America and continue his studies in 
one of our colleges, earning the means of support in one of the many ways open 
to the young men of this country. He left his native land when only sixteen 
years of age, and almost immediately after his arrival here, in 1856, entered the 
freshman class of Union College at Schenectady, New York. He remained through 
the whole course and graduated in i860 with high honors. By keeping a college 

book-store, he secured all the money that he needed, without essential interruption 
to the consecutive college work, as he was not absent more than one week during 
the four years. 

After receiving his degree he entered at once upon the work of teaching, 
first in the academy at Corning, Steuben county, for one year, and afterward at 
Ballston, Saratoga county, for several years. During this latter period he entered 
a law office as student, and after careful preparation and admission to the bar he 
resigned his position as teacher and began the practice of law, in which he has 
attained success. He began his political life with the Republican party, and has 
always worked with it, being especially active in the Presidential campaign of 1872. 

His scholarly attainments and sound judgment eminently fitted him to serve 
as School Commissioner, to which position he was twice elected in Saratoga county. 
While in the faithful performance of these duties he was called, in 1874, to the 
highest educational position, and one of the most important offices, in the State 
of his adoption. He met the requirements of this office with such marked ability 
that for three successive terms he has been elected State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction. Mr. Gilmour is the first person not American born who has ever 

been elected to this high office in New York State. 

[268] 
























A. B. HEPBURN, 

SUPERINTENDENT OF THE BANKING DEPARTMENT, 

TS a resident of Colton, St. Lawrence county, New York, the town in which he 

was born, July 24, 1847. His father, of Scotch descent, was one of the 

honored pioneers of St. Lawrence county. His mother is a sister of J. W. Gray, 

founder and editor, until his death, of the Cleveland Plaindcalcr, and of the 

Hon. N. A. Gray, long prominent in Ohio politics. 

Mr. Hepburn prepared for college at the St. Lawrence Academy. He also 
studied at the Falley Seminary, at Fulton, New York, and entered Middlebury 
College, at Middlebury, Vermont, in the class of 1871 As his father was not 
able to provide him the means for acquiring an education, Mr. Hepburn taught 
school in the winter and worked on a farm in the summer, in order to obtain 

the necessary funds. These extra labors proved too great for him, and he was 
obliged, at the end of the Sophomore year, to relinquish his college course on 
account of ill-health. After leaving college, he was Professor of Mathematics and 

Physical Science in the St. Lawrence Academy, just prior to the merging of that 

academy in the State Normal School, now located at Potsdam, and the succeeding 
year, was Principal of the Ogdensburg Educational Institute. Mr. Hepburn read 
law while teaching, and was admitted to practice in 1871. In the same year, he 
was appointed Superintendent of Schools, in St. Lawrence county, and was twice 
re-elected to that position, resigning January 1, 1875, 011 taking his seat in the 

New York State Assembly, to which he was elected in the fall of 1874. He 
was re-elected four successive years, serving as member of the Committees on 

Ways and Means, Judiciary, Insurance, Railroads, Canals, and as Chairman of 
most of them at different times during his legislative service. He took a promi¬ 
nent part especially in legislation relating to transportation. He was Chairman of 
the Special Railroad Investigating Committee of 1879 an d 1880, now known as 
the Hepburn Committee. This committee reported very important bills to the 
Legislature of 1880, all of which, at that and subsequent sessions, were enacted 
into laws. 


[269] 


A. B. HEPBURN. 


270 

Mr. Hepburn has always been a Republican, casting his first vote for General 
Grant for President in 1868. He was appointed to his present position as Super¬ 
intendent of the Banking Department, April 13, 1880. 


Hon. CHARLES G. FAIRMAN, 

SUPERINTENDENT OF THE INSURANCE DEPARTMENT, 

W AS born in Lewiston, Niagara county, New York, October 31, 1824, of 
New England ancestry, Newtown, Connecticut, being the ancestral home. 
After enjoying the advantages of the common school and academy in his native 
town, he spent three years, from 1842 to 1845, i n Albion, New York, learning 
the trade of printer, and in 1845 settled in Elmira, New York, where he has 
since resided. Originally a Whig, but in recent times a Republican, Mr. Fairman 
has devoted himself successfully to his profession as editor and publisher of news¬ 
papers. When appointed to his present position he was Chief Editor and Pro¬ 

prietor of the Elmira Advertiser. Mr. Fairman has been Alderman, and also 
Postmaster of his adopted city, and for several years he filled the position of 
Journal Clerk in the New York State Senate. He was appointed to his present 
position by Governor Cornell in 1880. 











EDMUND SAVAGE, 


D EPUTY Auditor of the Canal Department of the State of New York, was born 
in Genoa, Cayuga county, New York, December 14, 1828. His father, James 
Savage, came to this country from Londonderry county, Ireland, about the year 
1819. He resided for a time at Clyde, and at Auburn, but during the last forty- 
six years of his life, at Albany, and was for thirty-five years engaged in the business 
of canal and river transportation. The mother of Mr. Savage is of English ancestry. 
Her father, John Leavenworth, constructed in 1821 the Montezuma and Clyde locks 
on the Erie canal. Mr. Savage was educated at the Albany Academy. After leav¬ 
ing school he engaged in the transportation business on the Erie canal at Buffalo 
and Albany until the year i860. In 1861 he was invited by Auditor Nathaniel 
S. Benton to occupy a position in the Canal Department, where he has served 
uninterruptedly until the present time. 


ADDISON A. KEYES, 

O F Albany, Deputy State Superintendent of Public Instruction, was born in 
Busti, Chautauqua county, New York, October 3, 1842. His ancestors settled 
in Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1632, coming from Kent, England. Mr. Keyes 
attended public schools and an academy, and afterward studied for one year in 
the Albany Law School, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Laws from that insti¬ 
tution. He enlisted April 19, 1861, as private in the Seventh Illinois Infantry, 
passed from that to the Thirty-sixth, as Quartermaster-Sergeant, to the One Hun¬ 
dred and Twenty-seventh, as Second Lieutenant, and was subsequently promoted 
through all the gradations to Captain. In 1863 he was made Assistant Adjutant- 
General of the Second Brigade, Second Division of the Fifteenth Army Corps. 
Since 1864 he has been identified with the educational interests of New York 
State — as Chief Clerk in the Department of Public Instruction from 1866 until 
1875, and as Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction from 1875 to the present 
time. He was also for two years President of the Albany Board of Education. 
He is now Editor of the Albany Morning Express. 

[271] 


JAMES S. THURSTON, 


D EPUTY Superintendent of the Banking Department, was born at Owego, Octo¬ 
ber 14, 1825. He is a descendant of Daniel Thurston, who lived in Newberry, 
Massachusetts, about the middle of the seventeenth century. His parents were 
natives of New Hampshire, his mother being the daughter of the Rev. David Dar¬ 
ling, of Keene, New Hampshire. They removed to Owego about the year 1812. 

James S. Thurston received an academic education at the Owego Academy. 
He began active life in 1850 as a merchant in Owego, continuing in that business 
until 1862, when he entered the army as Quartermaster of the One Hundred and 
Ninth Regiment New York Volunteers. In 1863, he was appointed Additional 
Paymaster of the United States Army. In 1864 he was made local Paymaster at 
Elmira, New York, and in 1865 was mustered out with the brevet rank of Lieu¬ 
tenant-Colonel. After the close of the war Mr. Thurston engaged in business in 
Elmira as a manufacturer, and as the publisher of two newspapers. He was Treas¬ 
urer of Owego in i860, Secretary of the Board of Education in Elmira for several 
years, and Alderman from 1874 to 1878. He was also the Treasurer of the Southern 
Tier Savings Bank from 1869 to 1876. In 1878 he removed to Binghamton, where 
he now resides. He was appointed to his present position May 17, 1880. 


JOHN A. McCALL, Jr., 

O F Albany, Deputy Superintendent of Insurance, was born in Albany March 2, 
1849, °f Dish parentage. He attended St. Mary’s school in his native city 
until sixteen years of age, and subsequently graduated from the Albany Commercial 
College. He began business life as local manager for the Connecticut Mutual Life 
Insurance Company, and after three years’ service in this position became book¬ 
keeper at the Assorting House for State Currency, continuing as such until the 
House was closed after the National Banks were organized. In 1870 he was 
appointed to the Actuary’s Department of the Insurance Bureau of New York, and 
was subsequently made Chief Examiner of Companies and Deputy Superintendent. 
He was elected School Commissioner in 1878, President of the Albany Electric 
Illuminating Company in 1881, and later in the same year Vice-President of the 
National Convention of Insurance Officials. 

[272] 


ASSESSMENT AND TAXATION. 


By JOHN C. WINSLOW. 


HE theory of the laws regulating assessment and taxation in New York is 
that all property, real and personal, within the State, which, under the Federal 
Constitution, the State has power to tax, with the exemptions noted, shall con¬ 
tribute equally to the support of the public burdens. Lands and other property 
belonging to the United States, the capital stock of National banks, bonds, notes, 
and other Federal agencies and instrumentalities are of course exempt, being, in 
respect to taxation, beyond the jurisdiction of State laws; and the State has by 
statute further exempted from the operation of the assessment laws, public buildings, 
such as churches, schools, reformatories, asylums and the property of other chari¬ 
table and eleemosynary institutions, lands of cemeteries and agricultural societies, 
the personal and real property of clergymen to the extent of $1,500, as well as 
property exempt by law from execution. The latter exemption embraces minor 
articles of family and household use, the pew in church, ten sheep, one cow and 
two swine, provisions and fuel for the use of the family for sixty days and neces¬ 
sary household furniture, working-tools and team, professional instruments, furniture 
and library to the value of $250. In addition to this list, by filing a proper 
notice, a householder having a family may secure the exemption of his homestead 
to the value of $1,000. But aside from these reservations, Federal and State, 
all species of property, whether tangible as lands, chattels, or intangible, incorporeal 
and invisible, as claims, demands, accounts and annuities, are liable to assessment. 

The machinery for the assessment and collection of taxes, except those paid 
by corporations for State purposes directly to the Comptroller under recent statutes, 
is briefly this: The officials principally charged with the execution of the law are 
three Assessors and a Collector in each town, the Board of Supervisors in each 
county, the County Treasurers, the Comptroller and three State Assessors. The 
Assessors in each town, between the first day of May and July, in each year, 
are required “to proceed to ascertain by diligent inquiry” the names of all the 
taxable inhabitants in their respective towns, and also all the taxable property, 

[273] 


35 


ASSESSMENT AND TAXATION. 


2/4 

real or personal, within the same, and to prepare an assessment-roll, in which 
shall be set down, in columns, the names of all taxable inhabitants, the quantity 
and value of the lands, and the full value of all the taxable personal property, 
after deduction of debts, to be assessed to each. There is also to be included in 
the assessment-roll a list of the lands of non-residents, separate from the other 
assessments. Corporations are also to be listed. The roll is to be completed on 
or before the first day of August, and is open to public inspection until the 
third Tuesday of the month, when the Assessors meet and hear complaints from 
persons aggrieved, and make such corrections as are shown to be proper, exam¬ 
ining the applicant under oath as to the value of his property, for that purpose. 

The assessment-roll thus prepared forms the basis for the apportionment of 
the amount required to be raised in each town for State, county and town pur¬ 
poses ; and upon this basis the tax for these purposes is levied by the Board of 
Supervisors at their annual meeting, adding to the roll, opposite the several sums 
set down as the valuations of real and personal estate, the sums to be paid as 
taxes thereon. The roll, with a warrant under the hands and seals of the Board, 
is then delivered to the Collector of the town, whose duty it is to collect the 
taxes thus levied. The Collector accounts to the County Treasurer, who in turn 
accounts to the Comptroller. 

Payment of taxes is enforced, if necessary, by distress and sale of goods and 
chattels by the Collector, and in case of default in payment of taxes assessed upon 
lands, by sale of the lands by the Comptroller; the County Treasurer of each 
county makes return to the Comptroller of all unpaid assessments upon non-resi¬ 
dents’ lands and receives credit for the same on account of the amount due the 
State for the State tax apportioned upon his county; and unpaid assessments upon 
residents’ lands are assessed before being returned to the Comptroller in the 
assessment-roll of the following year as “non-resident.” In respect to assessments 
in cities and villages, differing provisions are made by local statutes, but they 
conform in most respects to the same general plan. In a few counties, also, by 
authority of local statutes, sales for taxes are conducted by the County Treasurer. 
By a statute passed in 1850, a general law was established, making this the rule in 
all the counties, but it did not meet with favor, was repealed and the old method 
revived in 1855. 

In addition to the functions of the Board of Supervisors in levying the tax, 
they also act as Boards of Equalization in their respective counties, and may 
increase or diminish the aggregate valuations of real estate in any town or ward 
by adding or deducting such a percentage as may, in their opinion, be necessary 
to produce a just relation between all the valuations of real estate in the county. 
The aggregate of the county must, however, be maintained. Up to 1859, no 


ASSESSMENT AND TAXATION. 


275 


method was in force for the equalization of the assessments between the counties — 
quite as important a matter as the equalization of the assessments of towns. By 
a law passed that year, however, a State Board of Equalization was created, con¬ 
sisting of the Commissioners of the Land Office—-seven of the State officers — 
and three State Assessors, whose appointment was provided for by the act. The 
Board meets annually on the first Tuesday in September, and has power to increase 
or diminish the aggregate valuation of real estate in any county by adding or 
deducting such sum as in their opinion may be necessary to produce a just 

relation between all the valuations of real estate in the State. The equalization 
is made upon the information collected by the State Assessors, who have power 
to examine persons and papers, and are required, at least once in two years, to 
visit every county in the State and to prepare a written digest of such facts as 
are liable to aid the Board of Equalization in the discharge of its duties. The 
State Assessors also hear appeals, on behalf of towns, from the Boards of Super¬ 
visors, in matters of local equalization and the correction of the assessment-roll. 

By a statute passed in 1880, of special importance to non-residents whose lands 
are liable to be unjustly discriminated against by the local Assessors, a remedy 
by certiorari was provided for the review and correction of illegal, erroneous and 
unequal assessments. 

The intent of the law is that the burden of taxation shall be fairly distributed 

upon and borne by all property within the State which receives the protection of its 

laws. The statute provides that “all real and personal estate liable to taxation shall 
be estimated and assessed by the Assessors at its full and true value, as they would 
appraise the same in payment of a just debt due from a solvent debtor.” The 
assessment of real estate, however, does not average more than sixty per cent of 
its value, while personal property, which is estimated by experts at least to equal 
in aggregate value that of real estate, through the utter inadequacy of the “ guess¬ 
work ” system, as it is commonly termed, the varying degrees of “ diligence ” which 
characterize the labors of the Assessors in ascertaining and assessing the personal 
property of individuals, and the ease with which the statutes can be evaded, has 
substantially disappeared from the assessment-rolls. The total assessed valuation of 
the real and personal property in the State, as made by the local Assessors, in the 
year 1879 was $2,637,869,238, of which $2,315,400,526 was assessed as real. estate 
and $322,468,712 as personal property, the personal assessment being thus but 
twelve and two-tenths per cent of the whole. 

The defects of the system have been the subject of legislative and popular 
discussion in the State for many years. The conservatism, however, which attends 
tax reforms everywhere, and the extreme reluctance with which changes are allowed, 
have interfered to prevent any radical changes. In this connection it may be aptly 


ASSESSMENT AND TAXATION. 


276 

noted that the plan of valuation, assessment and collection by town Assessors and 
Collectors, and Boards of Supervisors in counties, now in use, was first adopted in 
1 703 — chapter 133, Colonial Laws—precisely in its present form in all essential 
particulars, and has continued the law of the Colony and of the State to this day. 
In 1861 the subject of tax reform was considered by a commission of which 

ex-Auditor James A. Bell was chairman, and again in 1871-2 by a like commission, 

the chairman of which was the well-known economist David A. Wells, whose report 
was an exhaustive exposition of the principles which he held should control in tax 
legislation and of the evils deemed to inhere in the New York system. 

The subject was again mooted in the Legislature of 1880, and a special joint 
committee, of which Senator Winslow was chairman, was appointed to propose legis¬ 
lation. As the result of their labors and of the tax commission appointed the 
following year, with Joshua Van Cott at its head, important changes were made in 
the laws regulating the taxation of corporations; life insurance, banking and other 
corporations, except manufacturing, being subjected to a tax for State purposes upon 
their business, franchise and capital at a fixed percentage, computed upon sworn 
reports required to be made each year to the Comptroller, to whom the tax is 
paid directly. The income from this source for the fiscal year ending September 
30, 1881, was $992,725.16, and it is estimated that it will soon yield a revenue of at 

least $2,000,000 per year. The effect of this change was to reduce the State tax 

levy for 1881 to two and one-quarter mills on each dollar of the aggregate assessed 
valuation, which is the lowest rate since 1856. An effort was also made to secure 
the adoption of a listing system for the more effectual assessment of personal 
property, but it failed to receive legislative approval. 



















JOHN S. FOWLER, 

STATE ASSESSOR, 

O F Auburn, was born November i, 1821, in Peekskill, Westchester county, New 
York, of American parentage, although his father’s family was originally of 
English and his mother’s of French descent. He received the instruction of the 
common schools and of Cortland Academy, and then entered upon the business 
of farming. In 1854, however, he became a merchant and continued as such 

until 1876. Mr. Fowler was originally a Whig, but has acted with the Republican 
party since its organization. He was an Alderman of Auburn from 1861 until 
1866, when he was elected Mayor for two successive years. He was, also, at 
that time elected a member of the Board of Education, retaining the office until 
1872. He was first appointed State Assessor in 1873, from which time he has 
continuously held that office. 


JAMES H. WEATHERWAX, 

STATE ASSESSOR, 

O F Little Falls, was born November 20, 1829, in Little Falls, Herkimer county, 
New York. His parents were both natives of New York State, but a 
great-grandfather was born in Germany. After enjoying the advantages which the 
public schools afforded, he entered upon the occupation of a farmer, in which he 
has been especially successful. He has been a Republican from the formation of 
the party and active in politics since 1853. He was elected Town Clerk of 

Manheim, Herkimer county, in 1854, Supervisor in i860, 1861 and 1862, and 

Sheriff of Herkimer county in 1867. March 24, 1880, he was appointed State 
Assessor by Governor Cornell. Mr. Weatherwax died January 1, 1883. 

[277] 


C. P. VEDDER, 


STATE ASSESSOR, 

W AS born February 23, 1838, in Ellicottville, New York, where he now 

resides. His parents were natives of New York, and of Holland ancestry. 
He lived on a farm until thirteen years of age, afterward spent a part of one 
season as a driver on the Erie canal, and the following summer as a raftsman 
on the Allegany and Ohio rivers. He was a sailor for five years, first before 
the mast, afterward as mate and then captain. Mr. Vedcler received his education 
in the common schools, at the Springville Academy, and at the Albany Law 
School. He taught school for two years, and since 1866 has been a lawyer. He 
enlisted in August, 1862, as a private in the One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Regi¬ 
ment, New York Volunteers, and was promoted successively to the rank of First 
Lieutenant, Captain, Brevet-Major United States Army, for “gallant and merito¬ 
rious conduct in campaign before Atlanta,” and Lieutenant-Colonel New York 
Volunteers, for “gallantry at Lookout mountain.” He participated in the battles 
of Chancellorsville, Chattanooga, Rocky-faced ridge, and in many other important 
engagements, and in the sieges of Savannah and of Bentonville. He was with 
Sherman in the campaign to Knoxville in 1863, in his march through the Caro- 
linas, and in his march from Atlanta to the sea. He was taken prisoner at 
Chancellorsville in 1863, and was in Libby prison thirteen days, when he was 
paroled and assigned to the command of Parole camp, near Alexandria. He was 
soon after exchanged and joined his command at Bridgeport, Alabama. He was 
injured at Rocky-faced ridge May 8, 1864, and removed to hospital on Lookout 
mountain. After his recovery he was detailed by President Lincoln as Secretary 
of the Board to examine applicants for commissions in colored regiments. He 
was discharged from the army in June, 1865. Mr. Vedder is a Republican. He 
was Register in Bankruptcy from 1867 until 1875, Assessor of Internal Revenue 
from 1869 to 1871, Member of Assembly in 1872, 1873, 1874 and 1875, and State 
Senator in 1876 and 1877. He was one of the managers on the trial of George 
G. Barnard, Justice of the Supreme Court, before the Court of Impeachment in 
1872. He was appointed to his present position March 9, 1880. 

[278 ] 


THE 


STATE PRISONS. 


By LOUIS D. PILSBURY. 

« HE prison system of the State of New York was inaugurated by an act of 
the Legislature passed on the 26th of March, 1796. It provided for the 
erection of a building in the city of New York, to be called “the State Prison 

in the city of New York,” and another in the city or county of Albany, to be 

called “the State Prison in the county of Albany.” A commission, consisting of 

John Watts, Mathew Clarkson, Isaac Stoutenburgh, Thomas Eddy and John Murray, 
Jr., were appointed to erect the prison in New York, at a cost not exceeding 
£"25,000; and a commission, consisting of Philip Schuyler, Daniel Hale, Jeremiah 
Van Rensselaer and Teunis Ts. Van Veghten, were appointed to erect the prison 
in the city or county of Albany, at a cost not exceeding ,£20,000. The Gov¬ 
ernor, with the advice and consent of the Council of Appointment, was directed 

to appoint a Board of Inspectors, to consist of not more than seven for each 
prison, who, together with the Justices of the Supreme Court, were empowered 

to make all rules for the government of the convicts, and appoint a keeper for 
each prison, at an annual salary of ,£350 each. Provision was made for payment 
to the convicts of the whole or a part of any surplus they may have earned 
beyond the cost of conviction and maintenance, arising from the sales of articles 
manufactured in such prisons. The punishment provided for disobedience of rules 
was solitary confinement and a diet of bread and water. 

On the 3d of February, 1797, a law was passed suspending the powers of 
the Commissioners for erecting a State Prison in the county of Albany, and 
enacting that the State Prison to be built in the city of New York should be 

considered as the State Prison for the whole State. 

The prison in the city of New York was built upon the block bounded by 

the North river (West street) on the west, and Amos, Christopher and Wash¬ 
ington streets on the north, east and south. It was opened on the 25th of 
November, 1797. It had room for the proper care and custody of four hundred 

[279] 



28 o 


THE STATE PRISONS. 


prisoners, but often contained more than eight hundred. In consequence of its 
crowded condition, a new prison became necessary before 1824. 

There was at this time much discussion and difference of opinion as to the 
best system of government in prisons. The solitary system of Pennsylvania, the 
triple or quartette occupancy of large cells, and the Auburn system — solitary con¬ 
finement in cells at night and congregate labor in large shops by day — each had 
its advocates. The latter was finally adopted, on grounds of humanity and economy. 

The severity of punishments provided for criminal offenses under the laws of 
England influenced the legislation of New York at this period. By the act of 
March 30, 1798, conferring upon the Inspectors the power to appoint the keeper 
and his assistants, it was enacted that prisoners sentenced for life, escaping and 
afterward committing a felony above the degree of petit larceny, should, upon 
conviction, be hanged; that those sentenced for a term of years, who escaped, 
should be deemed guilty of felony, and, upon recapture and conviction, should be 
sentenced to double the term specified in the original judgment, and that, as often 
as such persons should escape and be retaken, the period of imprisonment should 
be deemed to commence anew from the day of such recapture. 

The powers of the Commissioners to build the prison in the city of New 
York were terminated by the act of February 15, 1799, and transferred to the 
Inspectors. An appropriation of $34,500 was made by the act of April 8, 1811, 
for the support of the prison in the city of New York, for the erection of a 
building for female convicts, and for other purposes. 

In consequence of complaints made by citizens engaged in mechanical indus¬ 

tries against the competition of prison labor, it was provided by the act of April 
7, 1800, that all boots, bootees, shoes and slippers made in the State Prison 

should be stamped on the outer sole of each with the words “State Prison,” and 
a penalty of $50 was affixed for each failure to comply with the law, and of 

$100 for counterfeiting such stamp; and it was further enacted, April 9, 1804, 
that not more than one-eighth part of the convicts should be employed in binding 
or lining shoes, the act to remain in force for four years. 

Previous to 1817 the so-called “public account” system — the purchase of goods 
for manufacture by prisoners on account of the State — had been in operation in 

the prison in the city of New York. But this system was prohibited from and 
after the 31st of October, 1817, by the act passed April 15 in that year, which 
provided that after the materials then on hand should be worked up and finished, 
the prisoners should be employed solely in manufacturing such materials as might 
be brought to the prison by individuals or companies, at fixed prices for the labor 
bestowed upon them. This act inaugurated the so-called “ contract system,” which, 
with the exception of the periods when marble and lime were produced at Sing 


THE STATE PRISONS.' 


281 


Sing and iron and nails at Clinton on State account, has since been generally in 
operation in all the State Prisons. It also provided that twenty per cent of the 
earnings of each well-behaved convict, in excess of the cost of his clothing, pro¬ 
visions and hospital expenses, should be set apart and invested for his benefit 
“quarter-yearly or oftener,” in United States interest-bearing stock. This act also 
provided for commutation of sentences for good behavior, which, as subsequently 
modified, has proved of great benefit in encouraging good conduct and promoting 
the maintenance of discipline in the prisons. The Inspectors were authorized, in 
cases of prisoners sentenced for not less than five years, to abridge the period of 
confinement one-fourth part for good behavior, and to pay to each upon his dis¬ 
charge the amount standing to his credit; but such sum was forfeited by bad 
behavior or attempt to escape, and in no case allowed on a second or subsequent 
conviction. Under the law as amended in 1879 every convict is now allowed a 
commutation, for good behavior, of two months on each of the first two years, 
four months on each succeeding year to the fifth year, and five months on each 
remaining year of the term of his imprisonment. 

The erection of the State Prison at Auburn was authorized by the act of 
April 12, 1816. Elijah Miller, James Glover and John H. Beach were appointed 
commissioners to build it and procure a suitable site, provided they should not 
purchase any land for that purpose, but should agree with the proprietors of any 
lands to grant the same. It was further required that the plan of the building 
should be approved by the Chancellor and Judges of the Supreme Court and the 
site by one of said Judges. 

An appropriation of $40,000 was made by the act of 1817 to complete at least 
one wing of Auburn Prison. The Canal Commissioners were authorized to contract 
with individuals or companies for the labor of prisoners to be employed upon the 
canal; and in case any convict so employed should escape and be apprehended, 
the court, upon conviction, was empowered to banish such convict from the State, 
on pain of death if he ever returned. Another appropriation of $100,000 was made 
by the act of April 2, 1819, to be expended on the building and for the general 
support of this prison. This act authorized corporal punishment, not exceeding 
thirty-nine lashes at any one time, or confinement in solitary cells on bread and 
water, or putting in irons or stocks; but whipping of females was prohibited. The 
appointment by the Governor, with the consent of the Senate, of five inspectors 
for Auburn Prison was authorized. 

In consequence of the crowded condition of the prison in the city of New 
York, the Legislature, on the 20th of April, 1820, passed a law directing the 
inspectors of that prison to examine the marble quarries in Westchester county 
and in the city and county of New York, and to select from them a suitable site 

36 


282 


THE STATE PRISONS. 


for a State Prison, and receive proposals for building the same. No practical result 
was reached in pursuance of this act; but on the 7th of March, 1825, a law was 
passed appointing George Tibbitts, Stephen Allen and Samuel M. Hopkins, com¬ 
missioners to erect a State Prison in the first or second Senate District, to contain 
solitary cells for eight hundred prisoners, and appropriated $70,000 for that purpose. 
They were also directed to sell the State Prison in the city of New York, and to 
employ convicts in either of the State Prisons to labor upon the new prison. In 
pursuance of this act, the commissioners located the prison at Mount Pleasant — 

now Sing Sing. By the act of April 12, 1828, they were authorized to contract 

with the Corporation of the City of New York for the care of the female State 
convicts in the prison at Greenwich at that city, and after such contract to transfer 
the male convicts to Mount Pleasant and give possession of the old prison to 

said corporation. All male convicts sentenced to State Prison after the 1st of 
June following, from the first and second districts, were required to be confined 
in the prison at Mount Pleasant, and all female convicts therein, so sentenced, in 
the State Prison in the city of New York. The commissioners were directed to 
report to the next Legislature a plan and estimate of cost of a prison for female 

convicts, to be erected at Mount Pleasant. 

Appropriations were made during the years 1830 and 1831, amounting to 
$14,800, for the construction of an additional story to the prison at Mount Pleasant, 
to contain two hundred solitary cells; and by the act of April 25, 1832, the sum 
of $6,000 was appropriated for the construction of two hundred and twenty addi¬ 
tional solitary cells at Auburn Prison. All male convicts sentenced to State Prison 
in the first, second and third districts were required to be confined at Mount 
Pleasant, and all such prisoners in the other Senate Districts, at Auburn. The 
agents were authorized to pay convicts, upon their discharge, not to exceed three 
dollars each. 

On the 22d of April, 1834, laws were passed authorizing the agent at Mount 
Pleasant to purchase ten acres of land on-the south side of the State Prison farm, 
and the agent at Auburn thirteen acres adjoining the prison grounds, and to extend 
the walls and erect shops and warehouses thereon ; but no money was authorized 
to be expended for these purposes at Auburn beyond the surplus arising from the 
earnings of the convicts. 

The erection of buildings for female convicts on the grounds of the State 
Prisons was authorized by the act of April 20, 1835 ; but in 1841 the female 
prisoners at Auburn were transferred to Mount Pleasant, in pursuance of a law 
passed on the 20th of April that year, which also provided that all females there¬ 
after sentenced to State Prison should be imprisoned at Mount Pleasant. This 
prison continued to be occupied by female convicts until 1877, when, in pursuance 


THE STATE PRISONS. 


283 

of a law passed April 24th that year, it was abolished, and the convicts were 

transferred to the Kings County Penitentiary. This law also provided that all 
females convicted of offenses punishable by imprisonment in State Prison should 

be imprisoned in the county penitentiaries. 

One of the most curious laws on the statute-books is that of May 11, 1835, 

which, after providing for the appointment of five Inspectors for each prison, 
enacted that no trades should be taught the convicts except the making of those 
articles of which the chief supply for the consumption of the country was imported 
from foreign countries, but authorized the employment of artisans from abroad to 
teach them new branches of business not pursued in this State. This act also 

furnishes an illustration of the morns multicaulis excitement of that period. The 
Inspectors were directed to introduce the manufacture of silk in the prisons, and 
to purchase cocoons and raw material, and the Inspectors and agent at Sing Sing 
were directed to plant a portion of the State farm with the white mulberry tree 
and other approved varieties of the mulberry, to be sold at moderate prices or 
gratuitously distributed, in order to promote the production of cocoons and the 
manufacture of silk. The agents were also directed to buy white mulberry seed 
for gratuitous distribution among the county poor-houses with a view of raising 
mulberry trees on the poor-house farms in the several counties. It is hardly 
necessary to remark that the new industry did not prove a success. At Auburn 
a portion of four acres was planted with mulberry trees, and another tract was 
set apart for the same purpose at Sing Sing. But it appears from the report 
of a committee of the Legislature in 1840 that there were but few trees then 
standing, and that these were in a very unflourishing condition, the prison authori¬ 
ties having concluded that this business could not be carried on with advantage 
to the State. 

The first enactment having in view the erection of a prison additional to 
those at Sing Sing and Auburn was that of April 9, 1842, which provided for 
the appointment of a Commissioner to ascertain whether mining and smelting 
operations could be profitably carried on upon State lands, or lands purchased for 
that purpose ; and also to ascertain the expense of moving five hundred State 
prisoners to such tract and building a prison for their safe-keeping. This act 
was followed by that of May 1, 1844, authorizing the erection of a new State 
Prison north of a line running east and west of the city of Albany, for the pur¬ 
pose of employing convicts in mining and the manufacture of iron. 

The Constitution of 1846 provided for the election, at the next general election 
after its adoption, of three Inspectors of State Prisons, to hold office for one, two 
and three years, respectively, and annually thereafter of one Inspector, to hold office 
for three years, to have charge and superintendence of the State Prisons and appoint 


284 


THE STATE PRISONS. 


all the officers therein. The act of December 14, 1847, required the Inspectors to 
hold their first joint meeting at Sing Sing on the first Wednesday in January 
succeeding, to appoint one of their number President of the Board for the ensuing 
year, to assign to each Inspector special charge of one of the prisons to be designated 
for the ensuing quarter, and to make a similar assignment and designation at the 
commencement of each quarterly term thereafter. They were directed to appoint 
for each prison an Agent, a Principal Keeper, to be called a Warden, a Clerk, 
Chaplain, Physician and Keepers, not exceeding one for twenty-five convicts ; and 
the duties of these officers were defined. The Agent was required to furnish each 
convict on his discharge with clothing not exceeding ten dollars in value, three dol¬ 
lars in money and not exceeding three cents per mile for each mile necessary to 
travel to reach his place of residence or conviction. Convicts were prohibited from 
learning any other trade than that which each had learned and practiced previous to 
his conviction or during a former imprisonment, except the making of articles of 
which the chief supply was imported from abroad, and also the cutting of stone at 
Sing Sing and the manufacture of iron at Clinton. Corporal punishment was pro¬ 
hibited, and the confinement of refractory prisoners in a cell on short allowance of 
food was substituted. This act was so amended in 1874 that the amount authorized 
to be furnished each convict upon his discharge was increased, clothing being pro¬ 
vided of a value not exceeding twelve dollars, or eighteen dollars between the first 
day of November and the first day of April, besides five dollars in money and four 
cents for each mile of travel necessary to reach the place of his residence or the 
place of his conviction if not residing within the State; but at Clinton Prison 
the mileage was fixed at five cents per mile. 

Although subsequent legislation made various modifications in the modes of 
employing the prisoners, the kinds of punishment for the refractory, etc., the system 
of administration provided by the Constitution of 1846 remained in force until the 
year 1877. Long before that period, however, it had occasioned great popular 
discontent. It was charged that it not only failed to accomplish desired reforms 
in prison administration, but that the increasing cost of maintenance had become a 
grievous burden to tax payers. These results were considered the natural outgrowth 
of the system of political appointments and consequent instability of administration. 
With every change in the political complexion of the Board of Inspectors, there was 
a change including alike the superior and the subordinate officers in each of the 
prisons. It was charged that appointments were made with reference to political 
considerations rather than the fitness of the incumbents, and therefore it became 
impossible to secure and retain men qualified by nature, education and experience 
in the discharge of their important duties. Under such a system proper discipline 
could not be maintained; if the reformation of the inmates were attempted, the 


THE STATE PRISONS. 


285 

results were far from satisfactory; the cost of maintaining the prisons constantly 
increased, until the yearly average for ten years prior to the adoption of the consti¬ 
tutional amendment in 1876 reached nearly $500,000. 

The Constitutional Convention of 1867 attempted to remedy these evils by 

incorporating in the Constitution framed by it three sections, providing for a Board 
of Managers, to consist of five persons, to be appointed by the Governor with the 
advice and consent of the Senate, to hold office for ten years and to have the 
charge and superintendence of the State Prisons, including the appointment of 
the Wardens, Clerks, Physicians and Chaplains. The Board was given the power 
to remove either of these officers “ for cause only, after opportunity to be heard 
in his own defense, upon written charges.” The attempt, however, failed, in conse¬ 
quence of the rejection of the Constitution by the people. But the agitation for 
a reform of the prison system did not cease. It was urged that under a proper 

system, securing unity of purpose, direct responsibility and permanence of adminis¬ 
tration, the enormous cost of the prisons might be greatly reduced and their 
condition otherwise improved. In compliance with this pronounced public opinion, 
the Legislatures of 1875 and 1876 adopted a joint resolution proposing an amend¬ 
ment of the Constitution abolishing the office of Inspector and creating that of 
Superintendent of State Prisons. The amendment was approved by the people at 
the general election held November 7, 1876. It provides that the Superintendent 
shall be appointed by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate, 
and hold his office for five years, unless sooner removed ; that he shall have the 

superintendence, management and control of State Prisons, subject to such laws as 
then existed or might thereafter be enacted; that he shall appoint the Agents and 
Wardens, Physicians and Chaplains; that the Agent and Warden of each prison 
shall appoint all other officers of such prison except the Clerk, subject to the 

approval of the Superintendent; that the Comptroller shall appoint the Clerk, and 
that the Superintendent shall have all the powers and perform all the duties, not 
inconsistent with the amendment, theretofore had and performed by the Inspectors. 
The Governor may remove the Superintendent for cause at any time, giving to 
him a copy of the charges against him and an opportunity to be heard in his 
defense. The amendment took effect upon the qualification of Louis D. Pilsbury 
as Superintendent, on the 17th of February, 1877. The same day a law was passed 
providing that the Superintendent should receive an annual salary of $6,000, and 
that his necessary traveling expenses actually incurred in the discharge of his official 
duties should be allowed him, not exceeding $1,000 per annum; and a further sum 
of $1,000 per annum was allowed for clerk hire. This act also prohibited appoint¬ 
ments on political grounds. 


286 


THE STATE PRISONS. 


The act of April n, 1877, provided that the Superintendent should have his 
office in the city of Albany, and, in general terms, gave to him the management 
and control of the prisons and of the convicts therein, and of all matters relating 
to the government, discipline, police, contracts and fiscal concerns thereof. It also 
provided that the system of labor should be by contract or by the State, or 
partly by one system and partly by the other, in the discretion of the Superin¬ 
tendent. 

Under the extensive powers granted him by the Constitution and laws, the 
Superintendent, on assuming his office, directed his attention to the improvement 
of the discipline of the prisons, and to various economies in their maintenance, 
such as the profitable employment of every able-bodied convict during every work¬ 
ing hour, the prevention of extravagance in the purchase of supplies and waste 
in their use. The condition of the prisons and of their inmates was greatly 

improved. The manufactures on public account at Sing Sing and Clinton, having 
resulted in heavy losses to the State, were abandoned, and new industries were 
introduced, under the contract system, at increased prices for labor, which resulted 
in corresponding profit to the State. The saving to the people during the first 
five years after the constitutional amendment of 1876 took effect, contrasted with 
the cost of maintaining the prisons for the preceding five years, amounted to 
about two and a quarter millions of dollars; and at the close of his term of 
office he had the gratification to announce that the prisons, for the first time in 
their history, had not only paid all the expenses of their maintenance during the 
previous fiscal year, but that they had paid a balance into the treasury. 

During this administration none of the usual agencies for the reformation of 
prisoners were neglected. Great differences of opinion have always existed and 

still exist with reference to the best means of reforming criminals within the 
prison walls. Various theories have been put to practical tests, but none of 

them have attained results which justified their general adoption. But with all 
that philanthrophy and statesmanship have as yet been able to accomplish in this 
great field of thought and labor, it is the belief of the writer, founded on many 
years of experience and observation, that the best system of reformation is that 

which provides the best system of labor — which enforces habits of industry and 

teaches some knowledge of a trade with which the prisoner, after ‘his liberation, 
may be enabled to escape from his former criminal associations and follow a self- 
supporting industrial pursuit. That such a system has been partially successful 
in the prisons of this State, since the adoption of the new plan of government, 

is shown by the decrease in commitments and in the ratio of re-commitments, 
indicating that a considerable proportion of the discharged prisoners have aban¬ 

doned lives of crime and become useful members of society. 


LOUIS D. PILSBURY, 


ATELY Superintendent of State Prisons, was born at Wethersfield, Connecticut, 
4 January 28, 1832. His father, General Amos Pilsbury, a native of London¬ 
derry, New Hampshire, was then Warden of the Connecticut State Prison, and filled 
that position until 1845, when he was appointed Superintendent of the Albany 
Penitentiary. His grandfather, Moses C. Pilsbury, was a Lieutenant in the United 
States Army in the War of 1812, and was Warden of the New Hampshire State 
Prison from 1818 to 1826, and of the Connecticut State Prison from 1826 to 1830. 
He was the first Warden of a prison under whose management the prisoners earned 
more than their support. His great-grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary 
War, who participated in the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill and continued 
in the service of his country until the close of the War for Independence. His 
grandmother, Lois Cleaveland, was a granddaughter of Reverend John Cleaveland 
of Ipswich, a distinguished clergyman who served as Chaplain of the Continental 
forces during the French War, and afterward during the Revolutionary struggle. 
Louis D. Pilsbury was educated at Simeon Hart’s school at Farmington, Connec¬ 
ticut, and at Professor Anthony’s Classical Institute at Albany. He became an 
officer of the Penitentiary April 1, 1848, and filled every grade of office in that 
institution from guard to Deputy Superintendent until March 1, 1873, when, upon 
the resignation of his father, he was appointed Superintendent. In 1876 he was 
appointed a member of the Board of Managers of the Elmira State Reformatory, 
and at the close of his term of office in 1881 he declined a reappointment. The 
Albany Penitentiary, under the management of General Amos Pilsbury, was pre¬ 
eminent among the penal institutions of the country for its admirable discipline 
and its successful financial results. Its reputation in these respects was fully 
sustained by his son, and during the six years that the latter administered its 
affairs the excess of earnings over expenditures amounted to $214,000. When, by 
a constitutional amendment adopted in 1876, the powers of the old Board of State 
Prison Inspectors were concentrated in a single head known as the Superintendent of 
State Prisons, Mr. Pilsbury was nominated for the position by Governor Robinson 

and unanimously confirmed by the Senate February 17, 1877. 

[287] 


Hon. ISAAC V. 

SUPERINTENDENT OF 


BAKER, 

STATE PRISONS, 



W AS born August 15, 1843, at Comstock’s Landing, Washington county, New 
York, a village that was founded by his maternal grandfather, Peter Com¬ 
stock. Mr. Baker resides at Comstock’s Landing. He received his education at the 
North Granville Academy and at the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute. 
At the early age of seventeen he started in life as a merchant. He subsequently 
became interested in agricultural pursuits, especially the breeding of Merino sheep 
and the raising of horses, in which business he has acquired quite a reputation. 
He was for four years Secretary of the Washington County Sheep Breeders’ and 
Wool Growers’ Association. He has also been President of the Washington County 
Agricultural Society. Mr. Baker is a Republican, and has had considerable legis¬ 
lative experience. He was a Member of Assembly in 1869, 1870, 1871 and 1877, 
serving on many of the most important Committees, and in 1877 was Chairman of 
the Committee on Canals. He was also a Member of the Senate in 1872 and 
1873, serving on the Committees on Canals and Railroads, and as Chairman of 
the Committee on Charitable and Religious Societies. He was elected to the Senate 
of 1880-81 by a large plurality, carrying every election district in Washington county, 
and receiving the largest majority ever given a Senator in that county. Mr. Baker’s 
popularity is shown by the fact that in his own home district he received all but 
eleven of the votes cast for Senator. He served as Chairman of the Committees 
on Canals and Game Laws. By virtue of his long and successful legislative expe¬ 
rience, and also by reason of his ability, Mr. Baker was reckoned one of the 
leading men in the Senate. On the 8th of March, 1882, he was appointed by 
the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, Superintendent 
of State Prisons. 


[288] 





















































AUBURN PRISON. 





































AUBURN STATE 


PRISON. 


By FRANK L. JONES, Agent and Warden. 


HIS prison was established by an act of the Legislature in 1816. In 1815 

Robert Dill, Daniel Hyde and John H. Beach agreed to give the State six 

acres of land for the location of a prison, should it be decided to erect one in 

Auburn. After a severe contest with Utica, Canandaigua and other towns, Auburn 
was successful, and the land was given according to agreement The original grant 

has since been increased to ten acres by purchase on the part of the State. 

The prison buildings are situated on the north bank of Owasco outlet, a little 
north of the center of the city. The prison grounds are inclosed by a rectangular 
wall, one thousand by five hundred feet, and the prison building has a front of 
three hundred and eighty-seven feet. On either side, and connected with the main 
building, are two wings; one being known as the South wing and containing four 
hundred and forty-two cells, the other, or North wing, containing eight hundred and 
forty-four cells. The length of the South wing is two hundred feet; length of 

North wing three hundred and nineteen feet; width of wings forty-two feet. Each 
cell is three and one-half feet wide, seven feet deep and seven feet high, closed 
by an iron grate. The cells are built on the plan of a prison within a prison, 
being in a block five stories high, surrounded by galleries and separated from the 
outside walls of the wings by an open space. 

There are two ranges of work-shops, each four hundred and twenty feet in 
length with an average width of sixty feet and two stories high, built of brick. 
There is also a large three-story brick building, fifty by two hundred and forty feet, 
occupied as a boot and shoe manufactory. There is also, between the North wing 
and the outside wall, another range of buildings, twenty-eight by eight hundred and 
forty feet, occupied as foundries, work-shops and store-houses; also a line of work¬ 
shops, forming a range two hundred and thirty feet in length by fifty feet in width, 
between the South wing and the outside wall, with many other smaller buildings. 

The wings and the main building are heated by means of steam with pipes 

and radiators, and are lighted throughout by gas. Every part of the prison and 

37 [289] 



290 


AUBURN STATE PRISON. 


the prison grounds are furnished with a constant and abundant supply of pure 
water brought from Lake Owasco by means of pipes. 

The upper portion of the main building is occupied by the Agent’s family as 
a dwelling; the Agent’s office, Clerk’s office, Keeper’s hall, with armory and key- 
room occupying the first floor. The front portion of the South wing is used for 
offices, as follows: Principal Keeper’s office, two rooms; Chaplain’s office and 
library, three rooms; and Store-keeper’s office, two rooms. To the south of these 
offices is the chapel, a room seventy by one hundred and five feet, having seating 
accommodations for one thousand four hundred men. On the floor above the chapel 
is the dispensary and hospital, having the same capacity as the chapel. This space 
is divided into four rooms or wards which are furnished with fifty-two beds and 
all necessary appliances for the care of the sick. On the same floor as the hospital, 
and over the offices referred to, are the officers’ quarters, State Agent’s office, barber 
shop and bath-room. The officers’ quarters are arranged in sitting-rooms and bed¬ 
rooms furnished for the use of those officers who are required to remain constantly 
at the prison. On the floor beneath the chapel is the prisoners’ mess-room, seventy 
by one hundred and five feet, with tables and seats for one thousand two hundred 
men. Adjoining the mess-room are the kitchen and bakery where all the cooking 
and baking for the prison is done by prisoners. In addition to the buildings already 
noticed may be mentioned the meat-cellar and store-room, the ice-house, with capacity 
for six hundred tons of ice, bath-house with twenty-four iron tubs and running 
water, hot and cold, for use of prisoners, engine and hose-house, lumber-room, wood¬ 
shed, coal-house, bucket-house, vegetable-cellars, guard-houses, stables, soap-house, and 
a capacious wash-house or laundry. 

This prison was organized on its present plan of discipline in 1823, and was 
under the management of a Board of three Inspectors, who were elected by the 
people at the general election, until the year 1876, when, by an amendment to 
the Constitution, which went into effect on the 1st of January, 1877, the Governor 
was empowered, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint a 
Superintendent of State Prisons, to hold his office five years and have all the 
powers and responsibilities which had previously devolved upon the Inspectors of 
State Prisons. In March, 1877, Hon. Louis D. Pilsbury was appointed Superin¬ 
tendent. As showing one of the results of this change in the administration of 
the prisons, may be mentioned the fact that while previous to the appointment 
of Mr. Pilsbury the gross expenditures of this prison had been in excess of the 
gross earnings by the amount of from $50,000 to $100,000 annually, at the present 
time it is nearly or quite self-supporting. While the general management of all 
the prisons has been thus under the control of the Superintendent, the internal 
discipline and management of this prison have been intrusted to an Agent with 


AUBURN STATE PRISON. 


291 


subordinates. There are employed as keepers, guards, and in other positions, sixty 
men, at an expense to the State of nearly $4,800 monthly. 

The trades plied in the prison are the manufacture of stove hollow-ware, saddlery 
hardware and plating, hames and horse-collars, boots and shoes, and iron and steel 
axles. 

The prisoners are lodged in separate cells at night, and during the working 
hours by day they work in company but in absolute silence unless permitted to 
speak to each other by the proper officer. Many who enter the prison without 
any trade are taught one. The present plan is to let the labor of the prisoners 
to contractors. The number now employed on contracts is seven hundred and 
thirty-four, and the number employed on State account is one hundred and sixty- 
four, the remainder being cripples or sick and unable to work. The total number 
at present confined is nine hundred and seven. The largest number ever confined 
at any one time in this prison was one thousand four hundred and fifty-six in 
the year 1876. All the clothing, except underwear, for use in the prison, beds, 
bedding, and clothes for out-going prisoners, and boots and shoes are made by 
prisoners employed on State account. The prison Physician considers the arrange¬ 
ments for eating, sleeping and working as well calculated to preserve the health 
of the prisoners as any that could be made under the present organization of the 
institution. 

Divine service is held every Sunday morning. This includes a Sabbath school, 
singing by the prisoners, and a sermon by the Chaplain. The prisoners have easy 
access to the Chaplain’s office, and he sees and converses with some of them daily. 
The Agent and Warden holds a sort of reception on Friday of each week, to which 
all prisoners having complaints to enter or requests to make may come, and their 
requests and complaints are carefully considered and the cause of all just complain¬ 
ing is as speedily removed as possible. 

The Principal Keeper has the immediate charge of the discipline of the prison 
and the assignment of Keepers and Guards to their respective positions. The Yard 
Master and Engineer, assisted by two Keepers, has under his control forty men. 
With these, the boilers for heating the prison and the boiler and engine for the 
laundry are run, the buildings repaired and new ones built, roads, walks and sewers 
kept in order, gas, steam and water-pipes laid and kept in repair, ice and coal 
delivered, etc. The Clerk of the prison is appointed by the Comptroller, and 
performs his duties under the direction of the Agent and Warden in such manner 
as shall be prescribed by the Comptroller. He is required to attend daily at the 
prison, to keep a register of all prisoners entering the prison, to keep all books 
of account, to examine all articles purchased and enter all bills, to have charge of 
all books of account, registers, etc., relating to affairs of the prison, etc. 


SING SING 


STATE PRISON. 


By AUGUSTUS A. BRUSH, Agent and Warden. 

£jJING SING STATE PRISON is located at Sing Sing, on the east bank of 
the Hudson river, thirty-three miles north of the city of New York. The 
building of the prison was commenced May 14, 1825. One hundred prisoners 
detailed from Auburn under charge of Captain Elan Lynds, then Principal Keeper 
at that prison, were forwarded to Sing Sing to begin the work. They at once 
commenced blasting the material of which the prison is constructed from the 
marble quarries within the prison grounds. In less than three years the building 
was erected according to the original plan, three stories high, five hundred and 
forty feet long, and forty feet wide, containing six hundred cells. Before com¬ 
pleting the roof, the capacity of the structure being found insufficient, a fourth 
story was added and subsequently a fifth and sixth. The building now contains 
twelve hundred cells, with a prison population ranging from fifteen hundred to 
sixteen hundred. Among the additional structures since erected, all built of marble, 
is a prison for females, containing eighty-four cells, completed in 1840, with a 
front embellished by six massive Grecian columns. By an act passed in 1877, 
Sing Sing ceased to be a prison for women, and those confined there were trans¬ 
ferred to the Kings County Penitentiary. The front portion of the building, 
formerly occupied by them, is now used as a residence for the Principal Keeper, 
and the rear portion, in which the cells are situated, as a prison for male con¬ 
victs. There is a building about two hundred and forty feet long, sixty-four feet 
wide, and two stories high, containing a mess-room, kitchen and chapel and the 
State shop, where the convicts’ clothing is manufactured. Another building, called 
the hospital, about seventy-five feet long and forty-five feet wide, three stories 
high, contains two large hospital wards, dispensing hospital, kitchen, Chaplain’s 
office, library and the office of the Principal Keeper. Connected with this building, 
in the rear is the “jail,” containing ten dark cells. The laundry building is of 
brick, two hundred and fifty feet long by forty-five feet wide, and three stories 
high. There are now one hundred and thirty convicts working on contract in 

[292] 


SING SING PRISON 


































SING SING STATE PRISON. 


293 


this building, washing and ironing new shirts manufactured in New York. There 

are two shoe shops, each about the same size as the laundry, built of brick and 
stone. One is two stories high and one has three stories. About three hundred 
men are employed in the shoe industry, all on contract. There is a building 
about three hundred and fifty feet long by thirty-five feet wide, two stories in 

height, built of stone and brick, in which is contained the State jobbing shop, 
where all repairs to the buildings and machinery required for the State are made. 
This building also contains a store-room and shipping office occupied by Messrs. 
Perry & Company, stove manufacturers. This firm also occupy a brick building 
two hundred and twenty feet long, thirty feet wide, and two stories high, as 

machine polishing and oil stove shops. In connection with this building, there 

is an engine-room containing an engine of one hundred and forty horse power, 
used for driving this company’s works in the north end of the yard. They also 
have a brick building one hundred and fifty feet by forty-five feet, one story high, 
used as a moulding floor, and another seventy-five feet by forty feet, one story 

high, used as a carpenter and pattern shop. They also occupy a large frame 
building, covering about one acre of ground, and containing six moulding floors, 

a milling-room and two cupola furnaces for melting iron, of a capacity of about 

t 

twenty tons each; a stone and brick building about three hundred feet long, 

forty-five feet wide, three stories high, used as a mounting shop, and containing 
the machinery and engine for that purpose, also an extension about two hundred 
feet by thirty-five feet, two stories high, used as a mounting shop and store-room; 
also several wooden additions used as rack rooms for storing different parts of 
stoves before they are mounted. This company also occupy a brick building one 
story high, covering nearly two acres of ground, containing eight moulding floors, 
scratch shop, milling rooms and engine-room with engine of seventy-five horse 
power, and two cupola furnaces for melting iron, of a capacity of twenty tons 
each. Messrs. Perry & Company employ about nine hundred prisoners. The 
Bay State Shoe and Leather Manufacturing Company employ three hundred 
prisoners. The Ossining Steam Laundry, Messrs. Mahany & Stern, proprietors, 
employ one hundred and thirty prisoners. The only other building within the walls 
is one of stone and brick, seventy-five feet front, eighty feet deep, two stories high, 
containing the State store-house, bakery, laundry, wash and engine-rooms, the latter 
occupied by the laundry contractors. Outside of the walls is the residence of the 
Warden, a stone structure two stories high with basement. This building also 
contains the offices, key-room and visitors’ room. The lime works consist of four 
lime kilns, a brick building two hundred and seventy feet long, forty-five feet wide 
and two stories high. The upper story is occupied by Messrs. Perry & Company as 
a nickel-plating room and polishing shop, employing from one hundred and fifty to 


294 


SING SING STATE PRISON. 


two hundred free laborers, nearly all residents of Sing Sing. The lower story is 
occupied by the Westchester Marble and Lime Works, Jay Champlain proprietor, 
who leases from the State the quarries, building and kilns, and pays a royalty 
amounting to about $4,000 per annum. A substantial brick wall on three sides 
and an iron fence on the river front inclose the prison and shops, taking in 
twelve and one-half acres of ground, of which the structures mentioned occupy 
about eight acres. The wall and fence with the necessary guard-houses render 
escapes, formerly frequent, now nearly impossible, except through the carelessness or 
connivance of the guards. The financial results of the present system of labor 
and administration are shown by the fact that while the deficiencies at Sing Sing 
prison under the former system annually exceeded $150,000, the net profits of the 
institution now reach about $48,000 per annum. 


CLINTON STATE PRISON. 


By ISAIAH FULLER, Agent and Warden 


^|| HE movement which resulted in the establishment of this prison was com- 
menced some time prior to 1842, and grew out of the dissatisfaction of 
mechanics with the policy pursued by the State in other prisons of bringing con¬ 
vict labor into direct competition with free labor. In that year the Legislature 
appointed Ransom Cook, of Saratoga, a Commissioner to inquire into the expe¬ 
diency of employing convict labor in mining and manufacturing iron. The Com¬ 
mission having reported in favor of thus employing able-bodied convicts, the 
Legislature passed an act May 1, 1844, providing for the establishment of a State 
Prison for this purpose, somewhere north of Albany. 

Under this act an iron mine and two hundred acres of land were purchased 
by the State in Clinton county, about sixteen miles west from Plattsburgh, where 
the prison was located. The mine and the land cost $17,000. Ransom Cook, 
of Saratoga, was the first Agent, and he commenced the labor of stockading 
twelve acres in the winter of 1845, with snow five feet deep, and finished the 
stockade on the 1st of May following. In May, 1845, the original act was 
amended and $100,000 was appropriated for the purposes of the act. 

In the following June, fifty convicts were transported from Sing Sing for the 
purpose of aiding in the erection of the prison, and soon after forty 


more were 


CLINTON PRISON, DANNEMORA. 


















CLINTON STATE PRISON. 


2 95 


received from Auburn for the same purpose. A temporary prison was soon com¬ 
pleted, and during the summer of 1845, work on the permanent prison was pushed 
with great vigor. In the same year there was also erected a store-house, Clerk’s 
office, Physician’s office, lime-house, machine-shop, carpenter-shop, foundry and a 
dwelling for the Agent and Clerk, all wooden buildings. In the following spring, 
work was continued with renewed energy. A saw-mill was erected, the mine 
opened, and during the year the prison was completed, containing four hundred 
and six cells, each four and a half feet wide by seven feet long, and a mess- 
room and kitchen, all built of stone, covered with slate, and practically fire-proof. 

In the spring of 1848, the first Board of State Prison Inspectors, consisting 
of three men chosen by the people in the fall of 1847, took formal possession 
of Clinton Prison. The policy of this Board in the management of the prison 
being opposed to that of Mr. Cook, he resigned, and George Throop was appointed 
Agent and Warden. For the first eight years after the opening of Clinton Prison 
no iron was manufactured there. The ore raised by the convicts was separated 
and sold at Saranac, Cadyville and elsewhere. In the summer of 1851 the erec¬ 
tion of a blast furnace was commenced; in 1853 it was completed and pig-iron 
was manufactured until 1856, when the furnace was burned. 

This furnace was constructed by Messrs. E. and J. D. Kingsland, of Iveese- 
ville, New York, who also built for the State extensive iron works, including a 
forge, rolling-mill and nail factory. These works were conducted by the Messrs. 
Kingsland for a number of years under the contract system, no nails, however, 
being manufactured until 1859. In 1863 this company was superseded by the 
firm of Andrew Williams, J. M. Noyes and O. A. Benton, who continued the 
manufacture of iron and nails until the winter of 1865. In i860 Messrs. Wood, 
Willard and Prentice, of Troy, New York, made a contract with the State for a 
lease of the shoe-shop, and the labor of two hundred and fifty convicts; and 
boots and shoes were manufactured by them during the entire term of their con¬ 
tract, which expired in 1865. In 1866 the State assumed the management of the 
iron works and purchased the nail machines. Iron ore was at first taken from 
what was known as the Skinner mine, which had been purchased by the State 
of General St. John B. Skinner, of Plattsburgh; this ore, however, proving too 
lean to pay for the working, the mine was finally abandoned, and from that time 
until the manufacture of iron was given up, the ore was taken from the Averill 
and Benton mines. This ore was separated in the prison yard, conveyed to the 
forge, and wrought into blooms or such forms as were necessary, passed into the 
rolling-mill, rolled into plates and then taken to the nail factory and cut into 
nails. They were then put into kegs, weighed and marked, ready for market, 
the whole process being carried on within the prison yard and concluded in the 


296 


CLINTON STATE PRISON. 


short space of twenty-four hours. The number of nail machines was forty-four, 
capable of turning out two hundred and twenty-five kegs daily. For several years 
the chief reliance for the important article of coal used in the manufacture of 
iron was from the timber lands in the immediate vicinity of the prison, but after¬ 
ward coal was obtained from the large tract of wood land belonging to the State, 
some six miles to the westward of the prison, containing about fifteen thousand 
acres. At one time there were twenty-five coal-kilns located on and near these 
lands. In February, 1878, the Hon Louis D. Pilsbury was appointed Superin¬ 
tendent of State Prisons. One of his first acts was to make an investigation of 
the manufacturing industry of iron then carried on at this prison. He found, 
after making the necessary examination, that the business entailed a heavy loss 
upon the State, and it was consequently abandoned. 

As far back as 1859 it was deemed necessary to employ a greater number 
of convicts, and the Board of Inspectors authorized the extension of the prison 
building. One hundred and thirty-two cells were added, increasing the whole 
number to five hundred and thirty-eight. The number of convicts in this prison 
has frequently been increased by drafts from Sing Sing and Auburn as necessity 
required, and this mode of retaining a sufficient force is still maintained. 

In 1865 John Parkhurst, then Agent of the prison, by direction of the Inspec¬ 
tors, opened a road from the prison, in a north-west direction to Ellenborough 
depot, on the Ogdensburg railroad. This road was opened at the expense of 
the State treasury, and has since proved a great benefit to the prison, as it runs 
through the large tract of timber land, since purchased by the State, and over 
which the wood and coal for prison use has since been transported. At one 
time it was graded and planked the entire distance of thirteen miles, but since 
the abandonment of the iron works at the prison in 1878, this road has been 
turned over by legislative enactment to the towns through which it passes. 

As early as 1850 a plank-road was constructed by the State from the prison, 
about four miles in length, to intersect one built from Plattsburgh to Redford the 
year before; and over this road was hauled the entire product of the prison and 
most of the prison supplies until 1878, when a railroad was built from Plattsburgh 
to within less than a fourth of a mile of the prison gate. 

The many advantages secured to Clinton Prison by its railroad communication 
with the New York and Canada railroad, at Plattsburgh, can hardly be overesti¬ 
mated ; this communication has not only enhanced the price of convict labor, but 
it has made the prison accessible to the markets of the country. The necessity for 
the construction of this road was first brought to the attention of the Legisla¬ 
ture by Superintendent Pilsbury. Early in the Session of 1878, Hon. William 
P. Mooers, the Member from Clinton county, introduced a bill into the Assembly, 


CLINTON STATE PRISON. 


297 


providing for the building of the road, and ably advocated the measure. The act 
was passed April 19, 1878, authorizing the Superintendent to make the survey 
and to build the road. Under a clause contained in the bill the Superintendent, 
with the approval of the Governor and Comptroller, leased the road, whereby all 
the advantages to Clinton Prison contemplated by the act have been secured to 
the State. 

Railroad communication having been established, it was deemed necessary to 
enlarge the prison to the capacity of twelve hundred cells; and May 21, 1879, 
an act was passed by the Legislature, appropriating $200,000 for the enlargement. 
The Speaker of the Assembly, Comptroller, Superintendent of Prisons, Hon. Wells 
S. Dickinson and Charles P. Easton were appointed Commissioners on the part 
of the State, to adopt a plan, and to make a contract for the construction of 
the building. Work on the foundation was commenced in the following Septem¬ 
ber, and the building completed in the spring of 1881. The new addition is a 
substantial brick structure, covered with slate, and comprises two wings, one three 
hundred and one feet, the other two hundred and fifty feet in length. The 
prison grounds inside the inclosure comprise about twenty acres. The fence sur¬ 
rounding these grounds, being built of posts and plank, is not deemed as secure 
as a stone wall, hence the number of officers required in proportion to the number 
of prisoners is considerably larger than it otherwise would be. The prison farm 
of one hundred and eighty acres adjoins the prison. 

The manufacture of hats is the principal industry now carried on at this 
prison, William Carroll & Company, of New York, being the contractors. The 
whole number of convicts now in the prison is five hundred and. thirty; of this num¬ 
ber three hundred and ninety-four are employed on the hat contract. The Agent 
and Warden of the prison is Isaiah Fuller, Esq., who was appointed July 15, 1878. 

38 


I 


FRANK L. JONES, 

A GENT AND WARDEN of Auburn Prison, was born, of American parents of 
^ English ancestry, at Lisle, Broome county, New York, March 29, 1822. Edu¬ 
cated in the common schools and at the Owego Academy, Mr. Jones has been 
variously engaged in business as clerk, merchant, lumberman and insurance agent. 
He has also been interested in agricultural pursuits. In politics he was early a 
Whig, but has been a Republican since the organization of that party. Mr. Jones 
was Postmaster at Coudersport, Potter county, Pennsylvania, in 1849 an d 1850, 
Sheriff of Potter county from 1850 to 1853, Sheriff of Tioga county, New York, 
in i860, Presidential Elector from the Twenty-seventh Congressional District of New 
York in i860, President of the village of Owego in 1869, and Postmaster at Owego 
from 1871 to 1879. He has been Warden of Auburn Prison since July 1, 1880. 


AUGUSTUS A. BRUSH, 

( 7 V GENT AND WARDEN of Sing Sing Prison, was born, of English ancestry, 
at New Fairfield, Connecticut, September 3, 1833. He received an academic 
education at the Amenia Seminary in Dutchess county, New York, and from 1849 
to 1854 he followed the profession of a teacher. Subsequently he engaged in a 
mercantile business, which he continued until 1872. Mr. Brush has always been 
Republican in politics. He voted for John C. Fremont for President, and for 
every succeeding Republican President. He was School Commissioner from i860 
to 1866, and member of the New York Assembly in 1867 and 1868. From 1869 
to 1880 he held the position of Special Agent of the United States Treasury. 
April 1, 1880, he was appointed to his present position of Agent and Warden of 
Sing Sing Prison. 


[298] 










/ 2 - 





















ISAIAH FULLER, 


GENT AND WARDEN of Clinton Prison, at Dannemora, New York, was 
^ born at Galway, Saratoga county, New York, July 13, 1840. Mr. Fuller 

received his education principally at the Fort Edward Collegiate Institute at Fort 
Edward, New York, and was for many years engaged in the business of farming. 
In politics he is a Democrat. He was Supervisor of the town of Galway for 
four successive years, and in 1870 and 1871 represented the First District of Sara¬ 
toga county in the New York State Assembly. He was appointed to his present 
position July 15, 1879. 


HENRY L. ARNOLD, 


O F Geneseo, State Agent for Discharged Convicts, was born at Conesus, Liv¬ 
ingston county, New York, June 4, 1828. He received an academic education 
at the Geneseo Academy and at the Lima Seminary, and subsequently engaged in 
the business of farming. In politics he was formerly a Whig, but has been a 
Republican since the formation of that party. He was a member of the Board 
of Supervisors of Livingston county from the town of Conesus in 1857 and 1858, 
and Clerk of the Board from 1867 to 1870, inclusive. He was Sheriff of Livingston 
county in 1871, 1872 and 1873. He was Captain of Company I of the One Hun¬ 
dred and Thirty-sixth Regiment, New York Volunteers, in 1862, Major in 1863, 
Lieutenant-Colonel in 1865, and Colonel by Brevet in the same year. He partici¬ 
pated in the battles of the Army of the Potomac from Fredericksburg to Gettys- 
burgh, was engaged in the campaigns from Chattanooga to Atlanta, and was with 
the “Army of Georgia” through Georgia and the Carolinas. 


[299] 


STATE ASYLUM FOR INSANE CRIMINALS, 


By CARLOS F. MACDONALD, M. D., Superintendent 


HIS institution is a regularly organized and equipped hospital for the care 
and treatment of the criminal insane, under the control of the Superintendent 
of State Prisons, and is the only institution of its kind in the United States. It 
is situated in the city of Auburn, on a tract of land containing about eight acres, 
fronting on Wall street, and inclosed by a stone wall, twelve feet high. The 
original structure was commenced in 1857, and opened for the reception of patients 
February 2, 1859, with accommodations for eighty; and was enlarged in 1873, by 
the erection of an additional wing, and its capacity increased to accommodate one 
hundred and sixty. The building is substantial and imposing in appearance, although 
its style of architecture is plain. The walls of the north and west fronts are of 
dressed native gray limestone, crowned, on the north, with a heavy brick cornice, 
colored to correspond with the stone-work, and on the west, with a cement cornice, 
in imitation of stone. The rear walls are of brick, with native gray limestone 
dressings to the window openings and string courses, crowned with cornices similar 
to those of the north front. The outbuildings of the establishment, chapel, dormi¬ 
tory for employees, laundry, work-shop, boiler-house, stable and carriage-house, ice¬ 
house, etc., are mostly of brick. The main structure consists of a central portion, 
forty-four by sixty feet, north and south, with wings adjoining on the east and west, 
extending in either direction one hundred and twenty feet in length, and terminating 
in a transept sixty-six by twenty-five feet north and south. The new wing, built in 
1873, connects at a right angle with the extremity of the west wing of the original 
building, and fronts to the west. It is one hundred and thirty-five feet in length, 
and also terminates in a transept ninety by sixteen feet In the first story of the 

central portion are located the reception-room, offices and dispensary; in the second 
and third stories, the Superintendent’s dwelling apartments, and in the basement, a 
room for visiting and receiving patients, officers’ kitchen and store-rooms. The 
wings have each two stories, of twelve and thirteen feet elevation respectively, 

and basement, and are set apart entirely for the use of patients. Each story 

[300] 


STATE ASYLUM FOR INSANE CRIMINALS. 


301 


constitutes a ward, consisting of a corridor, or hall, extending the entire length 
of the wing, with single dormitories opening therefrom — on one side, in the old 
wings, and on both sides in the new one. The dormitories are eight by ten 
feet, well ventilated and lighted, each having a large window overlooking the lawn 
and flower-garden. The basement halls, underneath the corridors of the wards, serve 
as passage-ways, and contain pipes for distributing water and steam to the wards 
and kitchens. The institution was originally designated the “Asylum for Insane 
Convicts,” but in 1869 its corporate title was changed to that of State Asyhivi for 
Insane Criminals, in order to provide for the confinement of “ Persons accused of 
arson, murder, or attempt at murder, who shall have escaped indictment, or who 
shall have been acquitted upon the ground of insanity.” By this act, provision 
was also made for the transfer of persons of the latter class to this institution 
from the other State Lunatic Asylums. The sources whence the asylum derives 

its patients are: the State Prisons and county penitentiaries, the New York State 

» 

Reformatory, from the courts direct, and by transfer from other State Asylums by 
order of a court. Patients, upon recovery, may be discharged from the asylum as 
follows: if under indictment, by returning them to the custody of the court on 
whose order they were received; if acquitted upon the ground of insanity, by 
order of a Justice of the Supreme Court of the judicial district in which the 
asylum is located; if convicted, by transferring to Auburn Prison cases received 
from State Prisons, and to penitentiaries and the State Reformatory cases received 
from them. Convicted patients, who recover after expiration of the term for which 
they were sentenced, may be liberated. Convicted patients continuing insane after 
their term of sentence has expired may be detained in the asylum, if regarded as 
dangerous or likely to be benefited by further treatment. If regarded incurable 
and harmless, they may, with the approval of the Superintendent of State Prisons 
and the State Commissioner in Lunacy, be transferred to the custody of the Super¬ 
intendents of the Poor of the county in which they were sentenced; or they may, 
upon certain conditions, be delivered to the custody of friends. Patients found 
to be “ not insane ” may be disposed of in the same manner as if recovered. 

The purposes for which the asylum was created are three-fold: the protection 
of society; the relieving of the inmates of ordinary asylums from association with 
criminals; and the securing for the insane of the criminal class kind care and 
appropriate treatment. 

Since the opening of the institution, five hundred and ninety-nine patients have 
been admitted for treatment. Of this number, there have been discharged as recov¬ 
ered, one hundred and fifty-five; improved, seventy; unimproved, one hundred and 
thirteen ; not insane, fifty-five, and seventy-one have died. The number of inmates 
remaining October 1, 1881, was one hundred and twenty-four men and ten women. 


CARLOS F. MACDONALD, M. D., 


"A /TEDICAL SUPERINTENDENT of the State Asylum for Insane Criminals 
at Auburn, New York, was born at Niles, Trumbull county, Ohio, August 
29, 1845. His parents were natives of this country, and of Scotch ancestry. He 
received a common school and academical education and also attended the Iron 
City College, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated in medicine at the Bellevue 
Hospital Medical College, in New York city, March 2, 1869. At the beginning 
of the War of the Rebellion, he enlisted in the Sixth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, 
serving in the capacity of Company Bugler, Corporal and Regimental Bugler, 
respectively. He participated in the battles of Cross Keys, Cedar Mountain, 
Chancellorsville, second Bull Run, the Wilderness, Appomattox Court-House and 
in many other of the principal engagements of the war, and in August, 1865, 
was mustered out at Cleveland, Ohio. Since he finished his medical studies Dr. 
MacDonald has been engaged in the active practice of his profession, giving especial 
attention to the treatment of the insane. From 1869 to 1870 he was Assistant 
Physician of the Kings County Hospital and Visiting Physician of the Kings 
County Small-pox Hospital and Alms-House; from 1870 to 1874 Assistant Physician, 
Acting Resident Physician and Superintendent, respectively, of the Kings County 
Lunatic Asylum; from 1874 to 1876 Official Visitor to the same institution, and 
from 1876 to 1879 Medical Superintendent of the State Asylum for Insane Criminals 
at Auburn. He was one of the Managers of the New York State Inebriate 
Asylum at Binghamton from 1877 t0 1 879, Superintendent of the Binghamton 
Asylum for the Chronic Insane from 1879 to I 88o, and since June, 1881, has been 
Medical Superintendent of the State Asylum for Insane Criminals at Auburn. Dr. 
MacDonald has made frequent contributions to medical literature, including papers 
on Feigned Insanity, Feigned Epilepsy, a Report on Chloral Hydrate, Homicide, 
Plea of Insanity and other articles on kindred subjects. 


[302] 


PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


By STEPHEN C. HUTCHINS, 

UNDER SUPERVISION OF 

The Honorable WILLIAM P. LETCH WORTH, President State Board of Charities. 


CHAPTER I. 

Relief of the Indigent among the Ancients: a Function of State. — The Roman 
System. — Christianity Exalts Charity.—The Humanitarian Work of the Church.— 
Care of The Insane in Ancient and Medleval Times. — Care of the Impotent Poor 
in England. — Laws against the “ Sin of Idleness.” — Legislation with Regard to 
Vagrancy. — Poor-houses for the Poor and Work-houses for the Idle.—The 
English Statutes Governed the Colony of New York. — Striking Contrast with 
Modern Times. 

A 

(51 MONG the ancients, one of the most important functions of the State was 
<*TV the relief of the indigent. It is unnecessary to do more than to refer to 
the largesses and other measures to this end which were adopted by the Greeks, 
but it may serve a useful purpose to glance at the Roman system of caring for 
the poor. The number cared for by the State was limited by the systems of 

slavery and clientage ; and yet for centuries one of the leading facts of Roman life 

was the gratuitous distribution of corn. In early times it was the duty of the mag¬ 
istrates to superintend the games by which the populace were amused, and to see 

that the people were supplied with corn at a moderate price. Finally, under the 
Sempronian ordinance, renewed by Cato, every Roman burgess settled in Rome 
was by law entitled to share in the free distribution of corn. The recipients had 
risen to the number of three hundred and twenty thousand when Julius Caesar 
attained supreme power; but he reduced the number to one hundred and fifty 
thousand, by excluding all individuals possessed of means or who were otherwise 

provided with the necessaries of life. Up to the time of Caesar, therefore, to share 

[303] 


3 ° 4 


PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


in the distribution of corn was a burgess right, or at least privilege; but the great 
Emperor made this distribution a method of providing for the poor. In other 
great States of extreme antiquity the poor had been in a sense cared for by 
giving them employment on extensive public works. In the civilization developed 
in Attica under Solon, and by subsequent legislation, was first recognized the 
principle that it is the duty of the State to provide for infirm and needy poor, 
and it was this principle to which Caesar first gave vital force, by transforming a 
debasing custom of purchasing political power into a creditable though unwise system 
of supplying the wants of the wretched. Caesar sought to build a temple of 
charity on the ruins of a debauching method of securing the power of the bur¬ 
gesses; but he failed. Under the Empire the populace greedily cried: “Bread 
for nothing, and games forever! ” The list of recipients increased to two hundred 
thousand under Augustus, and to five hundred thousand under Antonius. The 
providing of the metropolis with corn became the principal duty of provincial 
governors, and stringent laws regulated the acts of the numerous officials charged 
with its distribution. “ It was no wonder,” said Cato, “ that the burgesses no 
longer listened to good advice — the belly had no ears.” To all this Septimus 
Severnus added gifts of oil, and Aurelian distributed pork with bread. “ The fre¬ 
quent and regular distribution of wine and oil, of corn or bread, of money or 
provisions,” says Gibbon, “ had almost exempted the poorer citizens of Rome from 
the necessity of labor.” Salt was a monopoly of the Roman State, and was sold 
at nominal prices. Public baths were nearly gratuitous. Land was bought and 
divided among the poor. Poor women were cared for, and the support of poor 
children attained considerable importance. It is claimed that there were military 
hospitals, but there is no reason to suppose that there were any public hospitals. 
The sick and infirm were cared for by mutual assurance societies, and in Rome, 
as in Greece, private infirmaries for slaves existed. Private benevolence was active, 
and hospitality strongly enjoined, and placed under the protection of Deity. The 
impulses of humanity were as strong in ancient times as in our own day; but 
they were more wayward and less under the control of rational laws. 

Christianity exalted charity to the place of a Divine virtue, and embodied it 
as a living force in a vast and complicated organization. The first hospital was 

established in Rome in the fourth century by Fabiola, a Roman lady. The first 

asylum for lepers was probably founded by Saint Basil, and the Council of Nice 
ordered that one should be erected in every city. Hospitals were very generally 
opened in times of pestilence, and the sublimity of Christian courage and the ardor 
of its self-sacrificing spirit rendered Christian charity the noblest, as it was the 

most unique, feature of the early days of the Church. Legacies were left to the 

priests as the natural trustees of the poor, and the Church of Christ became 


PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


305 


the organized expression of human benevolence, inspired and energized by Divine 
love. The Church threw its protecting arms around helpless infancy, improved the 
condition of woman, established the sanctity of human life, elevated the slave classes 
and finally caused their emancipation, suppressed barbarous games, and encouraged 
education. 

The emancipation of slaves, however, caused a rapid increase of pauperism. 
The provinces were heavily drawn upon for grain to feed the clamorous populace, 
and efforts were made to introduce the pernicious custom of gratuitous distribution 
into Constantinople and other large cities, when it was broken up in Rome by the 
conquest of Africa and other grain-producing provinces by Genseric, King of the 
Vandals of Spain. With its sources of supply cut off and agriculture almost 
unknown at home by reason of long dependence upon the provinces, Rome for a 
time suffered the most appalling calamities. Then it was seen that the system of 
State support of those able to work was demoralizing, and the world was taught 
a lesson from which it ought always to derive great benefit. 

The Church continued for centuries to stand between the rich and the poor, 
between the strong and the weak, the almoner of the former and the protector 
of the latter. In one respect, however, it was slow to realize its duty. Indeed, 
it was difficult for the mind to understand the malady of lunacy. The phy¬ 
sicians of Greece gave it considerable attention, and foreshadowed some modern 
discoveries ; but no lunatic asylum appears to have existed in antiquity. There 
is said to have been at Jerusalem a refuge for insane anchorites. In the seventh 
century there existed among Mohammedans asylums for the insane. The Knights 
of Malta acquired fame by admitting lunatics to their hospitals. This unfortu¬ 
nate class, however, were treated with most wisdom and humanity in Spain, where 
lunatic a'sylums were established in the fifteenth century, before they existed any¬ 
where else in Christendom. The Christian Church was for centuries the dispenser 
of charity. 

In England, the first statutory recognition of the “impotent poor” is found in 
1388; but the chief object of all early statutes was to restrain vagrancy. In the 
sixteenth century, the government sought to effect this by regulating all the activities 
of citizens. Laws were passed with regard to the employments of the people. 
The cultivation of flax and hemp was directed, in order that “ the abominable 
sin of idleness ” might be avoided. The acreage of pasturage was limited, and 
a gentleman was only allowed two courses for dinner, except on certain notable 
days, when he was allowed three courses. The monopoly of sheep was restrained, 
and the monopoly of looms prohibited. Wages and prices of food, and the rela¬ 
tions of employers and employed, were regulated by act of Parliament. Every 
stranger who could not give an account of himself was brought before a justice 
39 


3°6 


PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


of the peace, and able-bodied men were compelled to work under the severest 
penalties for vagrancy, a third offense being punishable with death. The laws 
provided for compulsory education of the children of the poor, and for compulsory 
apprenticeship. 

The laws held it to be the duty of every person to labor, and failure was 
punished by the State as a crime. It is claimed that, before they were sup¬ 

pressed, the minor monasteries neglected their duties to the poor; but, however 
that may be, after the suppression of the monasteries, it became the duty of the 
State to provide for the support of the unfortunate. The sole reliance at first, 

however, was private charity, which was restricted and organized, and limited licenses 
to beg were issued. In the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Henry VIII — 
1535—a compulsory method was adopted for localizing the poor, and compelling 
them to abide in the cities or towns where they were born. In 1536 the year 
in which the lesser monasteries were suppressed, it was ordered that collections be 
made for the support of the “impotent poor,” and these voluntary collections were 
gradually converted into involuntary assessments. In 1601—43 Elizabeth — a settled 
plan was adopted for the care of the poor. This consisted in the adoption of the 
principle that the poor were to be sustained by local support, through compulsory 
tax. Overseers of the poor were provided in each parish, who were directed to 
raise by tax the necessary sums for providing material “ to set the poor on work,” 
as well as competent sums for the relief of lame, blind, and old and impotent 
persons, and for putting out children as apprentices. The distinction between help¬ 
less poverty and sturdy beggary was clearly drawn. The overseers were required 

to provide work for such as were able to labor and could not obtain employment, 
while those who would not work were to be sent to prison. Persons possessed 
of sufficient means, who would not support their children or parents, were to be 
assessed therefor. Children carried about begging were to be apprenticed. Poor- 
houses were to be erected only for the support of the impotent poor; and for 

the idle, work-houses were to be provided. During the reign of Charles II the 

poor rate was the heaviest tax assessed upon the people. It amounted to much 
more than either the duties on excise or customs, and was only little less than 
half the revenues of the Crown. Thereafter it increased rapidly. 

The law of 1601 remained the law of England until recent times, and was 
the general statute governing the Colony of New York, except as modified by 
local enactments. Nowhere was there that sensitive regard for the condition of 
the unfortunate which prevails to-day, nor was there any foreshadowing of the 
restless and resistless tide of philanthropy which in the nineteenth century was 

to work another revolution in the system of charities. Prisons were sewers of 
disease and seminaries of crime, and, so far from prison reform having been 


PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


307 


thought of, it was deemed wise to leave prisons and jails in as disgusting a 
condition as possible, in order that those once committed thereto might be restrained 
from crime by the terrors of its punishment. Instead, the result was to familiarize 
them therewith; to sink them deeper in the pool of iniquity; and to separate the 
idle and criminal classes from the rest of the world by an apparently impassable gulf. 


CHAPTER II. 


Parish Relief under the Dutch. — Stringent Colonial Laws against Vagrancy. — 
Safeguards against Alien Paupers.-Able-bodied Poor required to Work — 
Policy of the State. — Relief of the Poor. — Stringent Enactments against 
Unsettled Paupers.—Views of DeWitt Clinton. — Unwise Encouragement to 
Mendicity. — Necessity for Coercive Labor.—Failure of the English Poor 
System. — State Laws against Vagrancy. — Present System of Care of the 
Poor. — Degeneracy of Management of Poor-houses. — Their Inmates: Numbers, 
Classification, Illiteracy and Helplessness. 


There was no pauperism, and little necessity for making provision for the sup¬ 
port of the poor, under the Dutch, in the Province of New Netherland. The Dutch 
churches maintained a system of parish relief, and considered it a privilege as well as 
a duty to provide for their own necessitous poor. All denominations of Christians 
shared the same spirit ; and the laws relative to the care of the poor recog¬ 
nized church wardens and overseers of the poor equally, and contained regulations 
governing the manner in which they should discharge their trust. The statutes, 

therefore, were mainly designed to prevent vagrancy, and were very stringent. In 

1691, the first General Assembly of the Colony of New York passed an act for 

the removal of strangers who were unable or unwilling to support themselves. 
Immigrants who had neither visible estate nor manual occupation were required 
to give sufficient surety that they would not become a public charge. Vessels 
bringing persons to the Province who were not able to give such surety were 
required to take them away again. The constable was authorized to return vaga¬ 
bonds who could not give the required surety. In 1721, another act was passed 
to the same effect. Householders were made responsible for strangers entertained 
by them, and justices of the peace were authorized to return vagrants to their 

last dwelling place. In 1754 overseers of the poor were required to set able- 




3 °S 


PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


bodied poor to work, and to apprentice poor children. In 1756, heavier penalties 
were affixed upon masters of vessels and householders with regard to vagrant and 
idle persons brought within the Province or entertained by them. In 1768, over¬ 
seers of the poor were required to be elected in every town and precinct. In 

1772, it was provided that a house of correction should be erected in West¬ 

chester. In 1773, an act was passed with regard to the settlement and relief 
of the poor. It was provided that the justices should remove persons settled in 
homes having a yearly value of less than five pounds, and church wardens and 
overseers of the poor were to register notices with regard to all such persons. 

Persons executing any public office during one year, or paying toward the public 

taxes for two years, and persons abiding at service for one year, as well as all 
apprentices, gained a settlement without notice. Provision was made for the 
removal of persons who had not acquired a settlement, or legal residence. 

The State continued the same policy. In 1783 an act was passed condemn¬ 
ing as “disorderly” all persons who should unlawfully return to a place, after having 
been removed therefrom by two justices of the peace. Provision was also made 
for the confinement of lunatics — the care of insane persons at this time being 
exclusively with their relatives, subject to the general jurisdiction of the Chancellor 
of the State. 

In 1801, the Legislature passed a series of enactments for the care of the 
poor and the suppression of vagrancy. The most elaborate of these statutes 
related to the settlement and relief of the poor.* Settlement, or residence, could 
be secured by leasing a tenement of the yearly value of $30, by executing a pub¬ 
lic office, paying taxes, being bound as an apprentice, purchasing property exceeding 
$75 in value; and also by mariners and able-bodied immigrants. Strangers were 
required to notify overseers of the poor of their presence, and thereby gained a 
settlement if not removed in twelve months. Overseers of the poor who suspected 
that strangers would become a public charge were authorized to take steps for 
their removal; and the constable transporting said stranger was to be given 
such allowance as he might reasonably desire to have. Persons returning after 
removal were to be whipped and re-transported. Householders entertaining 
strangers were required to notify overseers of the poor, and could be compelled 
to give bonds that such strangers would not become a public charge. Parents 
could be compelled to support their children ; and children could be proceeded 
against, if they allowed parents to become a public charge. Alien passengers 
were not to be landed, unless masters of vessels gave bonds that they would 
not become a charge upon the public. By another act.f children who were charge- 


* Laws of 1801, chapter 184 ; passed April 8, 1801. 


f Laws of i8or, chapter 11; passed February 20, 1801. 



PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


309 


able upon the town, or whose parents were a public charge, were to be 
apprenticed. 

The statutes for the relief of the poor provided for a careful investigation of 
the circumstances of the indigent, and directed weekly allowances to the deserving. 
Another act * provided that taxes should be levied for the support of the poor, 
and a third f directed the supervisors to include such taxes in the annual 
budget. Towns were also required £ to elect overseers of the poor. The princi¬ 
pal act of the session provided for the erection of work-houses, and persons declin¬ 
ing to work were declared not entitled to relief. An excise act § was also passed, 
and the penalties and forfeitures imposed thereby were devoted to the relief of 
the poor. 

The act of 1801—chapter 184 — relative to the settlement and relief of the 

poor, was revised in 1810, and there was omitted therefrom the section providing 
that persons who returned after removal should be whipped. In 1817 it was 
provided that persons from other States or from Canada could not gain a settle¬ 
ment until they had purchased real estate worth $250, or rented a tenement of 
the value of $100 for four years. 

The speech of Governor De Witt Clinton at the opening of the session of 
the Legislature in 1818 gave expression to the convictions of statesmen and philan¬ 
thropists upon the subject of pauperism. After stating that “our statutes relating to 
the poor are borrowed from the English system,” and remarking that “ the experi¬ 
ence of that country, as well as our own, shows that pauperism increases with the 
augmentation of the funds applied to its relief,” he said that the evil had increased 
to an alarming extent in the city of New York, imposing heavy burdens of taxation, 
and dwelt upon the dangers likely to arise therefrom, alike to the city and the 

State. “Under the present system,” said he, “the fruits of industry are appro¬ 

priated to the wants of idleness ; a laborious poor man is taxed for the support of 
an idle beggar; and the vice of mendicity, no longer considered degrading, infects 
a considerable portion of our population in large towns. The inducements to 
pauperism may be destroyed by rendering it a greater evil to live by charity than 
by industry; its mischiefs may be mitigated by diminishing the expenses of our 

charitable establishments, and by adopting a system of coercive labor; and its causes 
may be removed by preventing intemperance and extravagance, and by intellectual, 
moral and religious cultivation. While we must consider as worthy of all praise 
and patronage religious and moral societies, Sunday, free and charity schools, houses 
of industry, orphan asylums, savings banks and all other establishments which pre- 


*Lavvs of 1801, chapter 178 ; passed April 8, 1801. 
f Laws of 1801, chapter 180; passed April 8, 1801. 


Laws of 1801, chapter 78; passed March 27, 1801. 
§Laws of 1801, chapter 164; passed April 7, 1801. 



3 TO 


PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


vent or alleviate the evils of pauperism, * * * we are equally bound to 

discourage those institutions which furnish the aliment of mendicity by removing 
the incentives to labor, and administering to the blandishments of sensuality.” 

The English poor system worked very badly in this State. There were con¬ 
flicts, accompanied by expensive litigations, between the various towns relative to 
the settlement of the poor. Paupers lazily idled their time away at private lodgings, 
and those whose condition demanded care and kindness frequently suffered from 
neglect, and even from cruelty. In 1821, therefore, the Legislature repealed the 
provision of the act of 1801 which authorized overseers of the poor to cause the 
removal of persons they suspected would become a public charge; and, subsequently, 
all the regulations for the transportation and settlement of the poor were abolished, 
and the distinctions between town and county poor were generally done away with 
by local action. An act was passed November 27, 1824, providing for the purchase 
of farms and the erection of county poor-houses thereon, for the reception and 
employment, so far as they were able to work, of all the poor of the county. In 
the course of a few years forty-six counties in the State purchased farms and erected 
buildings, at an aggregate expense of $268,850, an average to each county of $5,975. 
In addition, the alms-house and penitentiary in the city of New York cost $530,000. 

The number of persons in the poor-houses December 1, 1831, including the New 

York Alms-house, was 5,554, and they were maintained at an average annual cost 
of $33.28. The result of this change was to reduce the poor rates about one-half, 
and at the same time to provide more adequately for the support of the necessitous 
poor, while keeping away the incorrigibly lazy, who shunned localities where they 
were compelled to work. 

The statutes still contain a complicated system for ascertaining the residences 
or “ settlement ” of paupers, but they are mainly applicable to the care of town 

poor ; and they also contain provisions for compelling the support of indigent and 

infirm persons by their parents or children, if of sufficient means. These acts are 
largely copied after the Elizabethan laws. Each county is allowed to abolish or 
preserve the distinction between county and town poor ; and, indeed, the care of 
the poor is exclusively a local affair, without any general supervision, except that 
exercised by the State Board of Charities, which is inspectional and advisory, only. 
There are one or more superintendents of the poor in every county. These super¬ 
intendents meet annually for consultation, but, in the absence of any compulsory 
power, the facilities for grappling with existing evils are few and faulty. 

The poor-houses, with their indiscriminate commingling of inmates, degenerated 
into filthy breeding-houses of pauperism. As long ago as the 12th of January, 1844, 
Miss Dorothy L. Dix, in a memorial to the Legislature, made a feeling and eloquent 
representation of their condition. In 1856, they were visited by a select committee 


PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


3 i i 

of the Senate, consisting of Messrs. Mark Spencer, George Bradford and M. Lindley 
Lee, and on the 9th of January, 1857, they submitted a report setting forth the 
results of their examinations. They said: “The poor-houses throughout the State 
may be generally described as badly-constructed, ill-arranged, ill-warmed and ill-venti¬ 
lated. The rooms are crowded with inmates, and the air, particularly in the sleeping 
apartments, is very noxious, and to casual visitors almost insufferable. * * 

As receptacles for adult paupers, we do not hesitate to record our deliberate opinion 
that the great mass of the poor-houses which we have inspected are most disgraceful 
monuments of the public charity.” In 1865 the Secretary of the State Medical 
Society, Dr. S. D. Willard, in an official report of the results of an examination 
of the poor-houses by competent local physicians, condemned the institutions in 
most emphatic terms. 

Only two counties in the State, Hamilton and Schuyler, are without poor- 
houses or other institutions for the dependent classes. There are two town 
poor-houses, both in Queens county; seven city alms-houses* and fifty-six county 
poor-houses. 

The returns of the superintendents of the poor to the State Board of 
Charities for the year ending November 1, 1881, furnish the following statistics: 



County 

Poor-houses. 

City 

Alms-houses. 

Total. 

Number of inmates during the year, ------- 

I0.697 

41,825 

57,522 

Number temporarily relieved, - -- -- -- - 

50,418 

26,730 

77,148 

Total, .. 

66,115 

68,555 

134,670 

Expenditures for in-door support,. 

$583,809 39 

$1,096,645 93 

$1,680,455 32 

for out-door aid, .. 

584 . 39 8 73 

75,952 30 

660,351 03 

Total expenditures, --------- 

$1,168,208 12 

$1,172,598 23 

$2,340,806 35 

Average per capita , . . 

* $94 65 

$26 46 

$22 26 

Average outside aid, .. 

n 59 

2 84 

9 56 

Estimated income from pauper labor,. 

50,370 07 

24,751 00 

74,121 07 

Number of acres of land, .. 

8,897 

279 

9> j 76 

Number of inmates November i, 1881 : 




insane,. 

1,754 

4,403 

6,157 

idiots, . .. 

253 

240 

493 

epileptics, ----------- 

171 

125 

296 

blind, ... 

131 

125 

256 

deaf-mutes, - -- -- -. 

36 

4 

40 

children under two years, -------- 

I2Q 

144 

273 

children between two and sixteen, ------ 

93 

586 

679 

a.U others, - -- -- -- -- -- 

3,607 

4,347 

7,954 

Total number of inmates, ------ 

6,174 

9.974 

16,148 


* Above product of farms. 


About thirty per cent of the number of inmates of these institutions received 
a fair common-school education. About six per cent are classified as beggars 


* These alms-houses are located at New York, Brooklyn, Newburgh, Poughkeepsie, Kingston, Utica and Oswego. 






















































3 12 


PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


and idle, leaving ninety-four per cent who have reached a condition of helpless¬ 
ness. This helplessness, however, in many cases, was induced by habits which 

might have been corrected by early proper measures. 

By the provisions of the Revised Statutes, passed at the second meeting of 
the Legislature in 1827, to take effect January 1, 1829, Superintendents of the 

Poor were required to report statistical information to the Secretary of State.* 
By chapter 214, Laws of 1842, as amended by chapter 100 of the Laws of 

1849, an d chapter 424, Laws of 1870, it was made the duty of the superintendents 
of the poor of the several counties in this State and of certain other officers 

named, “in the month of December in each year, to report to the Secretary of 

State, in such form as he shall direct, the sex and native country of every 

pauper who shall have been relieved or supported by them during the year pre¬ 

ceding the day on which such report shall be made, together with a statement 
of the causes, either direct or indirect, which have operated to render such person 
a pauper so far as the same can be ascertained, together with such other items 
of information in respect to the character and condition of such paupers as the 
Secretary of State shall direct.” The Secretary of State reports annually to the 
Legislature the statistics he is able to obtain ; but they are procured with great 

difficulty, and are so imperfect, says Secretary Carr, as to be “ of but little use 
to the statistician or the legislator.” It would be better if this portion of the law 
was repealed, and perfect reports promptly made to the State Board of Charities. 


CHAPTER III. 

Prevention of Pauperism and Crime. — The Sustenance upon which Mendicity Feeds.— 
Poor and Criminal Reforms. — Disgraceful Condition of the County Jails. — Care 
and Reformation of Female Convicts. — Work-houses and Penitentiaries.—Society 
for the Prevention of Pauperism. — Savings Banks. — Houses of Refuge. — Care 
of Neglected Children. — Orphan Asylums and Homes of the Friendless. — Public 
School Society: Free Schools. 

The science of the prevention of pauperism and crime, one of the most 
important among social sciences, was well understood by the philanthropists and 
statesmen who early gave direction to the. energies of the Commonwealth, as well 
as by those who have directed them in recent years. Ill-considered out-door 


* Revised Statutes, first edition, Part I, chapter 20, section 95. 





PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


or temporary relief, as it is termed in the statutes authorizing it, simply affords 
food to pauperism and crime, upon which they may grow fat and greedy. To 
allow the able-bodied to pass their days in idleness is to train them to become 
sturdy paupers. To permit the dissolute to herd together is, through the opera¬ 
tion of the law of heredity, to rapidly multiply the pauper class. To keep the 
young in the poor-houses is to bring up a pauper progeny. To permit in poor- 
houses the indiscriminate association of the various classes of paupers is to adopt 
a system of leveling which degrades all to the lowest, and converts an otherwise 
avoidable helplessness into chronic pauperism. To fail to care for the sick poor 
is to permit temporary disability to drift into life-long illness. To carefully main¬ 
tain the distinction between the impotent, the vagrant and the vicious classes; to 
help the worthy poor to help themselves ; to care for the helpless, properly punish 
the criminal, and vigorously maintain for the idle a system of coercive labor, are 
among the most important agencies for the prevention of pauperism and crime. 
To do this, it is necessary to supplement local activity with wise State leadership, 
having a reserve power of coercion barely sufficient to unify and vitalize the system. 
This power of direction and control being lacking, the execution of the poor laws 
of the State is marked by more or less incongruity, and is frequently characterized 
by very grave evils. 

The philanthropists of New York early saw that the harsh features of the 
criminal and poor laws of England were as unwise as they were oppressive. The 
mitigation of the criminal laws of the State of New York began at an early 
day, and so rapidly was a milder system introduced, that this State soon took 

the lead of the nations of the civilized world in penal reform. Commissioners 

came, not only from other States, but from Europe, to study, commend and 
secure the adoption of the system here first introduced. In respect to our county 
jails, only, are we unworthy the place we occupy. Some of these local institu¬ 
tions are still imperfect and disgraceful in the extreme, nests of filth and 
nurseries of crime, without facilities for the proper classification of criminals, for 
the separation of the sexes, or for the detention of witnesses or those under exami¬ 
nation ; and all this notwithstanding the fact that for half a century various 

Governors of the State have repeatedly and urgently called the attention of suc¬ 
cessive Legislatures to the necessity of reform. Our work will be incomplete 
until our jails cease to be the primary schools of vice,” said Governor Throop, in 
1830, as his predecessors said before him, and as other Governors have said since. 

It was necessary for Governor Cornell to repeat the same suggestion ; and yet 
it has been all without avail. 

A separate building for the confinement of female convicts was erected at 
Mount Pleasant (Sing Sing) about 1840, which reflected upon the State great honor. 

40 


PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


3 T 4 

At the same time, however, one of the reforms most imperatively demanded is a 
distinct reformatory for women, and the adoption of a still more thorough system 
of classification in the penitentiaries and prisons of the State. 

The statutes early recognized the desirability of providing employment for the 
idle. In 1820 a house of industry was incorporated, to be located at Troy, and 
the general provisions of the act were extended to all the counties in the State, 
authorizing the establishment of industrial institutions. Work-houses for non-crimi- 
nal adults, however, can only meet with moderate success, for idleness is sure to 
lead to crime. In practice, therefore, our penitentiaries are becoming work-houses; 
and by limiting those sentenced therein to beginners in crime, very great progress 
can be made in that most essential requisite to criminal reform, the classification 
of convicts. In his message to the Legislature in 1835, Governor Marcy said: 
“ Penitentiaries have been the means of diminishing crimes, reforming offenders and 
relieving States from the burden of supporting convicts. One of the desirable 
objects which we have aimed at has been to make the avails of the labor of 

convicts defray all the expenses of these establishments.” 

Among the associations which did most, in the early history of the State, in 

aid of the worthy poor, and for the restriction of the vagrant and vicious classes, 
was the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism. In 1817 it endeavored to secure 
the incorporation of a savings bank, but failed; succeeding, however, two years later. 
These institutions thus owe their origin to the spirit of philanthropy, wisely guided 
in the direction of enabling the industrious poor to save their earnings, and of 
inducing them to do so by guaranteeing them a fair rate of interest. Savings 
banks, therefore, are a part of the public charities of the State in the highest 
sense, for they are self-supporting, and elevate and ennoble the industrious poor 
by increasing their self-respect as well as by cultivating habits of economy and 
thrift. 

The Society for the Prevention of Pauperism did another great work in bringing 
about the establishment of a House of Refuge in the city of New York, which in 
1824 was placed under the charge of a new organization termed the Society for 

the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents.* The founders of this institution were 

intent upon providing a reformatory for youths, who until that time were left with¬ 
out care to become hardened in vice. To it boys are committed from counties 
bordering on the Hudson river, and girls from all parts of the State. It is con¬ 
ducted on the “ congregate ” plan, and not on the family system. The Western 
New York House of Refuge, in the city of Rochester, organized on a similar plan, 
was established by and is under the control of the State, and is wisely conducted 


* Laws of 1824, chapter 126; passed March 29, 1864. 



PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


3i5 


to the end of rescuing from a life of crime the young who, from the force of 
evil influences, have been led into violations of law. 

The statistics of these institutions for the year ending September 30, 1881. 
were as follows: 



New York 

Western 

Total. 


House of Refuge. 

House of Refuge. 

Cash balance, October i, 1880, ........ 

$ 3,895 41 

* 

$1,033 28 

$4,928 69 

Receipts from the State, ......... 

76,359 96 

87,600 OO 

163,959 96 

from the labor of inmates, ........ 

3 C 339 70 

24,313 98 

55,653 68 

from loans, .......... 

17,796 19 

- 

17,796 19 

all other sources, .......... 

27,984 16 

667 09 

28,651 25 

Total receipts, ......... 

$ 157,375 39 

$113,614 35 

$270,989 74 

Expenses for salaries and labor, ........ 

$38,298 58 

$24,897 29 

$63,195 87 

provisions and supplies, ........ 

39, 2 98 7 i 

24,938 93 

64,237 64 

clothing, ....... .... 

fuel and lights, .......... 

h ,758 33 

n, 53 i 25 

23,289 58 

7,838 72 

12,482 77 

20,321 49 

medical supplies, . - - - - 

215 27 

434 73 

650 OO 

furnishing, - .......... 

2,585 33 

4,144 9 1 

6,730 24 

ordinary repairs, .......... 

3,189 74 

4.515 72 

7,705 46 

all other purposes, ......... 

9,128 07 

7,997 55 

17,125 62 

buildings and improvements, . 

24,050 27 

20,522 77 

44.573 04 

indebtedness, ........... 

16,000 00 

- 

16,000 OO 

Total expenses,. 

$152,363 02 

$111,465 92 

$263,828 94 

| Cash balance, - -- -- -- -- -- 

$5,oi2 37 

$2,14S 43 

$7,160 80 

Indebtedness, ........... 


10,600 00 

10,600 OO 

Average number of inmates, - -- -- ---- 

74i 

574 

1,315 

Average weekly cost of support, ....... 

$2 91 

$3 04 

$2 98 

Average, less earnings of inmates, ........ 

2 IO 

2 IO 

2 IO 


The liability of the children of destitute poor to become either vagrant or 
vicious, or both, led early to the adoption of preventive measures. For some 
years it was found possible to apprentice children of this class among desir¬ 

able families, but this becoming difficult, a law was passed in 1821 providing 
for their support in poor-houses until bound out. This system worked badly in 
practice. Among the early charities in the city of New York was an orphan 
asylum, and by its establishment many poor children were saved from the temp¬ 
tations of a life of destitution. There are now in the State many of these 

noble institutions. Their officers are empowered, under certain conditions, to 
indenture inmates, and overseers and superintendents of the poor are authorized 
to commit to them destitute orphan children. This is sometimes done ; but it 
is to be regretted that it is not more generally the custom. The remedy should 
be applied of providing a central compulsory authority. 

A class of institutions has been organized in recent times, midway between 
the orphan asylums and the houses of refuge, for the care of children neglected, 
exposed to temptations to crime, or convicted of minor offenses. The New 
York Juvenile Asylum was founded June 30, 1851, for the purpose of taking 

charge of truant, disobedient and neglected children, between the ages of seven 















































3 l6 


PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


and fourteen years, who might be either committed to its custody by magistrates, 
or voluntarily surrendered to its care by parents or guardians. With the consent 
of relatives and friends, it binds children as apprentices to useful occupations. 
The Society for the Protection of Destitute Roman Catholic Children of New 
York, founded April 14, 1863, and a society of the like name at Buffalo, founded 
April 25, 1864, are conducted upon the same general principles. These institutions 
gather children in masses, and subject them to a regular course of moral, mental 
and industrial discipline, with the view of fitting them for the practical affairs of 
life, and rendering them exemplary citizens. 

The Children’s Aid Society, founded in the city of New York, January 1, 

1855, is conducted upon a wholly different theory. It works constantly upon 

society as it exists, dealing with friendless and destitute children where they are, 
and seeks to reform their habits of life, and to develop a new character, which 
will be able to withstand ordinary temptations. It has had under its influence 
in a single year as many as twenty thousand children. Chief among its varied 
agencies are, lodging-houses for the homeless, free reading-rooms, industrial schools 
and an emigration bureau. Through the latter agency, it has provided for 
thousands of children desirable and permanent homes at the west. The New 
York Juvenile Asylum also shares in this beneficent work. The effect of these 
various institutions in the reduction of crime has been very great. 

The orphan asylums and homes of the friendless in the State number one hun¬ 
dred and fifty-eight, of which ninety-four have exclusively the care of children, forty- 

six of both children and adults, and eighteen of adults only. The statistics of 
these institutions for the year ending September 30, 1881, were as follows: 


Value of property : 



Expenditures : 


Real estate, - 

- 

- $11,314,117 46 

Indebtedness, ... 

$525,808 43 

Personal property, 

- 

3.635,985 41 

Care and maintenance, 

2,803,319 53 




Buildings and improvements, 

444,461 92 

Total, 

- 

- $14,950,102 87 

Investments, 

300,278 54 

Indebtedness, 

- 

1.773,070 26 






Total, - 

- $4,073,86s 42 

Receipts : 



Cash balance, 

357,815 03 

Cash on hand, October i, 1880, 

$404,177 65 

Inmates . 


From the State, - 

- 

145,262 20 

Aged men, - 

641 

From counties, 

- 

477,315 04 

Aged women, - 

3.763 

From cities. 

- 

1,096,285 68 

Boys, - 

10,274 

For support of inmates, 

153,144 07 

Girls, ----- 

- - 8,644 

Donations, 

- 

699,900 28 



From investments, 

- 

245,852 66 

Total, ... . 

23,322 

From loans, 

- 

426,871 63 

Children placed in families: 


From other sources, 

- 

782,874 24 

Bj' adoption, - - - - 

367 




By indenture, 

726 

Total, 

- 

$4,431,683 45 






Total, ... - 

1,093 

“An act to 

legalize 

the adoption of 

minor children by adult 

persons,” passed 


June 25, 1873, supplements the great and beneficent work of providing homes 

for homeless children. By this statute the interests of the child are not only pro¬ 


tected as to its bodily comforts and mental culture, but upon the death of its 

















PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


31/ 


guardian it becomes, with certain limitations and exceptions, a sharer by inheritance 
of his estate. I hus the organized forces of society aid homeless orphaned and 
destitute children to secure home and parents and property, the law ratifying and 
confirming the acquisition, and pledging to its support the whole power of the State. 

At an early day the children of the industrious poor were cared for in 
the city of New York, through the wise and energetic efforts of the Public School 
Society, and their education was secured by the establishment of free schools; and, 
in 1825, these schools were thrown open to the public, and made in truth com¬ 
mon schools, worthy of the support of those who were able to educate their own 
children, thus contributing as far as possible toward lessening the distinction too 
often made between the children of the rich and of the poor. The public school 
system of the State is thus the outgrowth of the effort to establish, on a charitable 
foundation, efficient schools for the children of the worthy poor, and prevent the 
increase of pauperism and crime. 


CHAPTER IV. 

Efforts to Ameliorate the Condition of the Unfortunate. — The Indigent in Poor- 
houses ; in City Alms-houses.—Incorporated Societies and the State seek their 
Relief. — Schools for Deaf-mutes, for the Blind, and for the Idiotic.—Statis¬ 
tics of these Institutions, and Numbers of these Unfortunates in the State. 

Active efforts have been put forth in New York, by Society and by the 
State, to ameliorate the condition of the unfortunate classes. These efforts have 
sometimes been misdirected, and have not always been equal to the demands upon 
human sympathy. Too much has been left to well-disposed, but ill-advised, private 
charity ; too little attention has been paid to the evils incident to the poor-house 
system; and public sympathy has been allowed too often to exhaust itself in the 
erection of costly buildings and in other extravagant expenditures, rather than been 
led to devote its energies with economy and prudence to enterprises promising prac¬ 
tical results, because based on sound principles in social science. Until recent 
years, while gathering into schools the teachable among deaf-mutes, the blind and 
the idiotic, and into hospital-asylums the curable among the insane, those who could 
not be taught or cured have been left to the mercy of society or the misery of 
poor-houses. 

The condition of these indigent unfortunates in the poor-houses was formerly 
deplorable. The deaf-mutes were left to themselves, without an effort to improve 




PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


318 

their condition; the blind had no amusements, were without employment, did not 
receive any kind of instruction, and were limited to the most debasing associa¬ 
tions ; idiots were left to indiscriminate association with other inmates, no effort 
was made to strengthen their mental and moral faculties, and they were frequently 
the victims of the depraved. The insane in some instances were provided separate 
buildings or apartments, but they were generally dark, ill-ventilated and loathsome. 
Here, often in filth and squalor, with only coarse and unpalatable food, persons whose 
derangement was mild and inoffensive were mingled with the violent and destructive, 
and the so-called asylums became in fact breeding-houses of insanity. No effort 
was made toward humane treatment ; the confusion drove the bewildered brain into 
more hopeless insanity, and the boisterous and troublesome were locked in cells, 
and often subjected to the most cruel treatment. 

The cities of New York and Brooklyn, in connection with their alms-houses, 
have hospitals for the treatment of the diseased, and various kinds of private 
hospitals, schools and asylums. There are also, in many of the cities and counties 
of the interior, public and private hospitals, which are under excellent management. 

The State has annually appropriated large sums of money in aid of societies 
incorporated for the purpose of sustaining benevolent institutions, paying for the 
tuition of indigent pupils in various deaf-mute schools and in an institution for 
the blind ; and it has erected one institution for the blind and one for idiots 
in which these classes are educated at its expense. It has also erected several 
hospitals and asylums for the insane. 

The Institution for the instruction of the Deaf and Dumb was incorporated 
in 1817"'. Its first President was DeWitt Clinton, a leader in all philanthropic 
effort, as well as in all progressive enterprises and in the movement for the develop¬ 
ment of the resources of the State. This institution, the history of which is fully 
given elsewhere, is under the management of directors elected by the life mem¬ 
bers of the society. In 1819 an appropriation of $10,000 was made for the 
support of indigent pupils, and in 1821 it was provided that thirty-two pupils, 
for a period of three years each, might be instructed at the expense of the 
State. The number of beneficiaries was extended from time to time, and the 
years of study were increased, until 1855, when the limitation was removed, and 
the State agreed to pay a fixed sum for the education of indigent deaf-mutes 
between the ages of twelve and twenty-five years. In April, 1863, a law was 
passed for the admission of indigent children between the ages of six and twelve 
years, on the application of overseers of the poor or of supervisors, whose mainte¬ 
nance thereupon became a charge against the county. 


*Laws of 1817, chapter 264 ; passed April 15, 1817. 





PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


3 r 9 


The institution in New York was for a long time *the only deaf and dumb 
school in the State. The next one erected was founded in Buffalo. In 1839, 

Lewis Le Couteulx deeded about one acre of land for the use of an institution 

for the education of deaf-mutes. In 1849 t ^ e heirs confirmed to the Right 

Reverend Bishop Timon the original benefaction. In the spring of 1856 the 

Bishop purchased several small frame houses in the neighborhood and caused 
them to be moved on the lot, and three Sisters of St. Joseph immediately 

opened therein a day school. In October, 1857, with a few pupils, the instruc¬ 
tion of the deaf and dumb began and was prosecuted for some time, when it 

was suspended for about two years, owing to financial embarrassments. A four- 
story building, twenty-eight by thirty-four, was then erected; instruction was 
resumed in 1862, and has since been successfully prosecuted. The school is 

known as the Le Couteulx Institution for the Improved Instruction of the Deaf 
and Dumb in the city of Buffalo. 

The Institution for the Improved Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb in the 
city of New York was organized February 28, 1867, and incorporated April 12, 
1870. It occupies a large building on Sixty-eighth street and Lexington avenue, 
recently erected for its purposes. It uses the German system of instruction ; lip 
reading, without the aid of artificial signs. The same system is taught in the 
Buffalo institution, in connection with the sign language, to which preference is 
given. These schools have been placed by the Legislature on an equality with 
the original institution; the one in New York by chapter 180, Laws of 1870, and 
the one in Buffalo by the provisions of chapter 670,' Laws of 1872. 

In April, 1875, there was organized in Rome the Central New York Insti¬ 
tution for Deaf-Mutes. The system of instruction pursued in this institution is 
known as the “combined method” or the “improved method.” It consists in 

imparting instruction by means of the sign language and the manual alphabet, 
and in teaching articulation and lip reading. The Legislature of 1875 made an 
appropriation to this institution, and also passed an act relating to the instruction 
of deaf-mutes,* by which it was provided that whenever deaf-mutes under twelve 
years of age become a county or town charge, it shall be the duty of the overseers 
of the poor or supervisors to send them to the Institution for the Instruction of 
the Deaf and Dumb in the city of New York, to the New York Institution for 
the Improved Instruction of Deaf-Mutes, to the institutions at Buffalo or Rome, or 
to any institution in the State for the instruction of deaf-mutes. 

In 1876, there was organized at Rochester the Western* New York Institu¬ 
tion for Deaf-Mutes, and the following year it received its first appropriation from 


* Laws of 1875, chapter 213; passed April 29, 1875. 







320 


PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


the Legislature for the care of State pupils. The same Legislature also passed an 
act* authorizing the St. Joseph’s Institution for the Improved Instruction of Deaf- 
Mutes, located at Fordham, to receive State pupils. This institution has in Brook¬ 
lyn a branch for girls, which was organized in May, 1875 ; and at Frog’s Neck, 
Westchester county, a branch for boys. 

The six incorporated benevolent institutions for the deaf and dumb in the 
State are now on an equality before the law, with reference alike to State and 
county pupils. During the year ending September 30, 1881, the average number 
of pupils under instruction in each of these institutions was as follows : New 
York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, 484; Le Couteulx 
Institution for the Improved Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb in the city of 
Buffalo, 131 ; Institution for the Improved Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, 
New York, 122; Central New York Institution for Deaf-Mutes, Rome, 155; 
Western New York Institution for Deaf-Mutes, Rochester, 117 ; St. Joseph’s Insti¬ 
tution for the Improved Instruction of Deaf-Mutes, Fordham, 235. Total average 
number of pupils in these institutions is 1244. The total number of deaf-mutes 
in the State, according to the census taken under the supervision of the State 
in 1875, was 2,483, of which number 1,351 were under twenty-five years of age. 

The statistics of the New York Institution for the Deaf and Dumb for the 
year ending September 30, 1881, are as follows: 


Receipts: 

From the State, 


- $ 59,461 8g 

Disbursements: 

For salaries and labor, 


- $45,902 75 

From localities, 

- 

45,074 53 

For provisions and supplies, - 

- 

38,734 15 

From paying pupils, 

- 

1,351 00 

For clothing, ... 

- 

- 11,750 48 

From loans, - 

- 

9,714 03 

For fuel and lights, 

- 

12,890 16 

From all other sources, 

- 

- 27,071 85 

For medical supplies, 

- 

2,171 82 

Total, - - - 


- $142,673 30 

For furniture and bedding, 

For ordinary repairs, - 

- 

4,467 31 
9,585 42 

Indebtedness, ... 


- $9,714 03 

For deficiencies, - 

For all other purposes, 

- 

3,136 94 

14,034 27 

Average number of pupils, 
Weekly per capita cost, 

- 

4S4 
$5 54 

Total, - 

- 

$742,673 30 

The first school 

for 

the education 

of the blind to cm into 

0 

active 

operation 

in America, although 

the 

second in organization, was the New 

York 

Institution 


for the Blind. It was incorporated by a law passed April 21, 1831, and was 
opened for the reception of pupils March 15, 1832; the first pupils were received 
in 1834, and the same year the first appropriation was made by the State for 
their education. From the organization of the institution until 1870, pupils were 
only received between the ages of twelve and twenty-five years. By the pro¬ 
visions of an act passed April 9, 1870, the society was authorized to receive 
pupils between the ages of eight and twelve years. No pupil can remain longer 


*Laws of 1877, chapter 378. 












PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


321 


than seven years. This private school was for a long time the only institution for the 
blind in the State. In 1865, however, the Legislature passed an act authorizing the 
erection of an institution, to be known as the New York State Institution for the 
Blind, and to be under the entire care and control of the State. This institu¬ 
tion was located at Batavia, and was opened in 1868. Admission was at first 

upon order of some judge or justice, but an act was passed May 9, 1872, pro¬ 
viding that the board of managers should regulate the form and manner of 

admission. The counties contiguous to the city of New York form a district 

from which pupils are sent to the. New York Institution ; and the remaining counties 
send their indigent blind to the State Institution at Batavia for instruction. 

In 1875, there were two thousand two hundred and fifty-six blind persons in 
the State, of which number two hundred and thirty-one were under twenty-five 
years of age. The two institutions have a capacity for about four hundred and 
twenty-five pupils, and during the year ending September 30, 1881, an average 
attendance of three hundred and eighty-five pupils. The following are the statis¬ 
tics of these institutions: 



New York 
Institution for the 
Blind. 

Batavia 

Institution for the 
Blind. 

Total. 

Receipts from the State,. 

$ 40,557 30 

$37,000 00 

$ 77,557 30 

from localities,. 

7 A 33 OO 

4,693 68 

11,826 68 

from investments,. 

6,622 57 

- 

6,622 57 

from all other sources,. 

20,164 62 

1,015 12 

21,179 74 
7,428 71 

Cash October i, 1880,. 

7,428 71 

- 

Total receipts,. 

$Sl,946 20 

$42,708 80 

$124,655 00 

Expenses for salaries and labor,. 

$23,180 05 

$17,670 62 

$40,850 67 

for provisions and supplies,.- - 

19,064 32 

7,344 65 

26,408 97 

for clothing,. 

4,135 13 

3,865 25 

8,000 38 

for fuel and lights,. 

7,515 68 

4,089 68 

11,605 36 

for medical supplies, . 

83 26 

170 26 

253 52 

for furnishing,. 

1,150 47 

97O 20 

2,120 67 

for transportation,. 

254 62 

621 19 

875 81 

for ordinary repairs,. 

4,722 45 

1,956 30 

6,678 75 

for indebtedness,. 


220 48 

220 48 

for extraordinary expenses,. 

3,289 00 

- 

3,289 00 

for all other purposes, .. 

5,749 7 i 

1,315 49 

7,065 20 

Total expenses,. 

$69,144 69 

$38,224 12 

$107,368 81 

Assets, cash on hand,. 

$12,801 51 

$4,484 68 

$17,286 19 

due from localities,. 

7,148 50 

4,881 65 

12,030 15 

sales of manufactures,. 

700 39 

664 20 

1,364 59 

from other sources,. 

12,241 18 

- 

12,241 18 

Total assets,. 

$32,891 58 

$10,030 53 

$42,922 11 

Indebtedness,. 

$ 5,332 92 

_ 

$ 5,332 92 

Investments (market value, $151,819.41), par value, .... 

Average number of pupils,. 

Average weekly expense,. 

147,000 OO 
204 
$4 80 

181 
$3 57 

147,000 00 


While there are schools, there are no asylums in the State, either for adult deaf 
and dumb or adult blind persons. It was formerly thought that the educated blind, 

4i 









































































3 22 


PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


on leaving institutions for instruction became self-supporting; but the difficulties in 
the way of educating them to be self-sustaining are so great, and the lapses into 
idleness so easy and frequent, as to render the problem of their absorption into 
society as useful members very perplexing. It being represented that in the counties 
of New York and Kings only is adequate local provision made for the support of 
indigent blind, the Legislature of 1881 passed a law* authorizing the Governor, by 
and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint five Commissioners to 
select a site, in the Fifth or Sixth Judicial Districts, for a State Home for the 
Blind. The Commission so appointed submitted a report, as required, but it con¬ 
tained no recommendation. In some of the better-class poor-houses in the State, 
the blind are fairly comfortable while usefully employed. At the same time there 
are large numbers who remain the objects of great solicitude. Whether it shall 
be finally resolved to provide for all of this class in a large State asylum specially 
constructed and adapted to their peculiar needs, or whether they should be left 
to county care and private benevolence, an important question, upon which there 
is considerable diversity of opinion, is yet to be determined by the Legislature. 

An act was passed July io, 1851, providing for the care, support and educa¬ 
tion of idiotic children by the State. In October of the same year, the institu¬ 
tion was opened in leased buildings near Albany, and in September, 1855, a 
building erected for its use at Syracuse was occupied. 

The authorities of New York city, in connection with their alms-house depart¬ 
ment, have a school for the instruction of idiotic children, and an institution for 
the better care of adult idiots and those not deemed capable of improvement. But 
the condition of idiots in most of the poor-houses of the State is very wretched. 
This led the Legislature in 1878 to provide for the opening of a branch of the 
State Asylum, devoted to the care of females gathered from the poor-houses. It 
occupies a substantial brick building at Newark, Wayne county, leased for the 
purpose, and is controlled and managed by the trustees of the New York Asylum 
for Idiots. The institution gives complete protection to its inmates, training them 
in such industrial occupations as are suited to their varied capacities, and with 
but slight, if any, increase over the cost of their maintenance heretofore in poor- 
houses. It is very desirable that the males should likewise be provided with a 
separate home. 

The total number of idiotic persons in the State, in 1875, was 2,392, of which 
number 1,221 were under twenty-five years of age. The following are the statistics 
of the State Asylum for Idiots and the Custodial Branch for the year ending 
September 30, 1881 : 


* Laws of 1881, chapter 85 ; passed April 28, 1881. 



PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


323 



State Asylum 
for Idiots. 

Custodial Branch. 

Total. 

Cash on hand October i, 1880, - . 

Received from State, ..... .... 

from sales of produce,. 

from labor of inmates, . 

from localities, - .' 

from paying pupils,. 

$2,697 52 
45,000 00 
322 49 
419 00 
3,516 02 
5.367 36 

$ 3,626 OO 

10,000 00 

$ 6,323 52 
55,000 00 
322 49 
419 00 
3,516 02 
5,367 36 

Total receipts,. 

$ 57,322 39 

$13,626 00 

$70,948 39 

- ■ 1 

Expenses for salaries and labor, - . 

for provisions and supplies,. 

for clothing, ... . . 

for fuel and lights, . 

for medical supplies, . ... 

for furnishing, . 

for transportation, . 

for ordinary repairs, . 

for all other expenses, ... - .... 

$15,863 34 
i6,42q 87 
5,424 61 
4,275 25 
257 22 
2,402 88 
134 49 
5,343 03 
4,728 13 

$3,247 99 
4,054 69 

I ,306 89 
691 16 
62 17 
898 77 
143 55 
1,401 36 

1 ,433 50 

$19,111 33 
20,484 56 
6,731 50 
4,966 41 
319 39 
3 , 30 i 65 
278 04 
6,744 39 
6,161 63 

Total expenses, . 

$54,858 82 

$13,240 08 

$68,098 90 

Cash balance October 1, 1881, . 

1 Due from localities and individuals, . 

I Indebtedness, . 

! Average number of inmates, . 

Average weekly cost, . 

$2,463 57 
2,621 74 
3,333 38 

305 

$3 20 

$385 92 

480 71 

105 

$1 97 

$2,849 49 

3,814 09 
410 


CHAPTER V. 

Organized Effort to Relieve the Sufferings of the Poor.— Incorporated Hospitals 
and Dispensaries. — Care of the Insane. — Hospitals for the Treatment of the 
Curable, and Asylums for the Incurable. — Insane Persons in Public and Private 
Institutions.—Statistics of the New York State Lunatic Asylum, the Hudson 
River State Hospital, the State Homoeopathic Asylum at Middletown, the Buf¬ 
falo State Asylum, the Willard Asylum and the Binghamton Asylum. — Present 
Facilities for the Care of Acute and Chronic Insane. 

Organized effort to relieve the sufferings and supply the wants of deserv¬ 
ing poor, springing out of the humanitarian sympathies of the people quickened 
by Christianity, first took the form of relieving the necessities of parish and 
town poor. Voluntary associations were then formed for the purpose of broad¬ 
ening, developing and extending the system of public charities. Legislation was 
directed toward facilitating the efforts of these associations and suppressing impo¬ 
sition upon the public by the idle and thriftless. 

The New York Hospital, founded in 1770, and conducted with philanthropic 
devotion after the close of the Revolution, is the oldest of the agencies conducted 



















































324 


PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


by these incorporated societies. In 1801, it was provided that lunatics might be 
sent thereto, at the expense of localities arranging for their care. An appropri¬ 
ation for the better support of the hospital was made by another act.* Persons 
afflicted with infectious or contagious diseases were to be cared for at the ma- 
rine hospital on Staten Island, + and poor persons who had gained a settlement 
or legal residence were to be treated at the public expense. Another statute* 
related to the jurisdiction of the Chancellor over the persons and estates of idiots, 
lunatics and infants. 

Hospitals for the care of the sick and disabled have been established in cities 
and large towns, from time to time, as needed. They now number forty-nine, and 
are well managed. Dispensaries for the medical relief of the poor who reside in 
their own homes, but visit these institutions to receive advice and obtain reme¬ 
dies, have become a valuable and important charity. The following are the statis¬ 
tics of the hospitals and dispensaries : 



Hospitals. 

Dispensaries. 

Total. 

Value of property,. 

Indebtedness, - -- --. 

Receipts, .. 

Expenditures, .. 

Number of patients,.. 

$8,448,392 70 
526,465 25 
1,418,359 10 
1,269,313 49 
25.073 

$463,007 11 

188,476 26 
167,046 99 

$8,911,399 81 
526,465 25 
1,606,835 36 
1,436,360 48 


Prior to 1843, when the State Lunatic Asylum at Utica was opened, the 
curative treatment of the insane in the State was confined to the New York 
Hospital, or Bloomingdale Asylum, and a private institution at Hudson, with a 
combined capacity somewhat exceeding two hundred. These hospitals were lim¬ 
ited, practically, to paying patients. In 1830 Governor Throop called the atten¬ 
tion of the Legislature to the wretched condition of the insane, and a committee 
was appointed, which submitted a report containing much valuable information. 
In 1834 and 1835 the agitation was renewed, and in 1836, when the State Medi¬ 
cal Society presented a memorial upon the subject, an act was passed authorizing 
the erection of a State lunatic asylum. This was afterward located at Utica, 
and the work of construction continued until 1843, when the institution was for¬ 
mally opened. This continued for a quarter of a century to be the only State 
institution for the insane. The deplorable condition of the incurables in the 
county houses, increasing with the rapid increase of insanity, continued to be the 
subject of discussion ; and, finally, a resolution was adopted by the State Medical 
Society in 1864, and the Legislature passed an act authorizing the Secretary of that 


* Laws of 1801, chapter 26 ; passed March 20, 1S01. 
f Laws of 1801, chapter 92 ; passed March 30, 1801. 
t Laws of 1801, chapter 30; passed March 20, 1801. 























PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


325 


Society, Sylvester D. Willard, M. D., to institute an examination of the poor-houses, 
with the view of ascertaining their exact condition with respect to the insane ; 

and the following year an act was passed providing for the erection of the Willard 
Asylum for the Chronic Insane, and also an act looking to the establishment of 
two more hospitals for the treatment of the acute insane, one in the eastern and 

the other in the western part of the State. The Willard Asylum for the Chronic 

Insane, at Ovid, was opened in 1869, and the Hudson River State Hospital, at 
Poughkeepsie, in 1871. There were some delays in the erection of the western 

institution, but in 1880 the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane was opened. 
Meantime the friends of homoeopathic practice had established an institution at 
Middletown. State aid was extended to the enterprise, and in 1874 it was opened. 
By the provisions of chapter 280, Laws of 1879, the State Inebriate Asylum at 
Binghamton was abolished, and in its place was established the Binghamton Asy¬ 
lum for the Chronic Insane. In subsequent pages there will be found historical 
sketches of these institutions. 

In 1875 there were 8,091 insane persons in the State. The following are 
the statistics of the various asylums for the insane for the year ending Septem¬ 
ber 30, 1881 : 


PATIENTS. 

Hospitals for the Acute Insane. 

Asylums for the Chronic Insane ; and 

-1 

Mixed. 

Utica. 

Poughkeepsie. 

Buffalo. 

Total. 

Middletown. 

Ovid. 

Binghamton. 

Total. 

Number of patients, 

1,025 

430 

219 

1,674 

340 

1,884 

*66 

2,290 

Discharged, 






149 

- 

149 

recovered, 

128 

22 

19 

169 

6 l 

- 

- 

6l 

improved, - 

54 

28 

II 

93 

18 

- 

- 

18 

unimproved, 

128 

80 

10 

248 

30 

- 

- 

30 

not insane, - 

8 

I 

I 

IO 





died. 

5i 

26 

22 

99 

15 

- 

- 

15 

Remaining, 

626 

273 

156 

1.055 

216 

1,735 

66 

2,017 


♦Number admitted to December 31, 1881. 


Inmates of Public and Private Institutions. 


Total number in State institutions, - - - 3.072 In county asylums and poor-houses, - - - 1,910 

In Asylum for Insane Criminals, Auburn, - - 132 In city asylums and alms-houses : 

In private institutions : New York,.3.205 

Bloomingdale Asylum, New York, - 204 Brooklyn,. 1,175 

Sanford Hall, Flushing, - - - 19 Poughkeepsie,. 9 

Brigham Hall, Canandaigua, - - - 39 Oswego,. 3 

Marshall Infirmary, Troy, - - - 65 Rochester, ------- 214 

Providence Asylum, Buffalo, - 92 - 

- Total city and county, - - - - 6,516 

Total State and private, - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 3 > 5 2 3 


Total number insane inmates of public and private institutions,.10,139 


































PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


326 


FINANCES. 

U tica. 

Poughkeepsie. 

Buffalo. 

Middletown. 

Ovid. 

Total. 

Cash on hand October i, 1880, 

$28,519 71 



$ 17,572 77 

$25,628 56 

$ 71,721 04 

Received from State, 

from localities for public 

15,000 00 

$12,647 60 

$31,582 85 

100,908 26 

36,447 22 

196^585 93 

patients, ... 

142,404 59 

52,709 89 

12,026 68 

25,702 34 

264,583 07 

197,426 57 

from private patients, - 

45.336 60 

14,118 84 

1,073 48 

30,536 25 

- 

91,065 17 

from all other sources. 

9,689 OI 

888 47 

4,858 53 

995 82 

4,642 14 

21,073 97 

l 

Total receipts, 

$240,949 91 

$80,364 80 

$49,541 54 

$ 175,715 44 

$ 331,300 99 

$877,872 68 

Paid for buildings and improve- 






$128,075 94 

ments, .... 


$84,053 70 

$8,915 ir 

$99,908 45 

$19,252 38 

current expenses, 

- 

- 

- 

- 

84,053 70 

for extraordinary repairs, 

$17,878 85 

- 

- 

- 

- 

17,878 85 

for salaries of officers, 

15,000 00 

- 

4,694 93 

7,633 32 

11,447 22 

38,775 47 

for wages and labor, 

39.182 31 

- 

6,859 82 

15,228 26 

70,593 32 

131,863 71 

for provisions and supplies 

61,639 58 

- 

8,754 4 i 

20,573 38 

88,672 79 

179,640 16 

for clothing, ... 

8,779 95 

- 

I,III ig 

2,463 48 

23,208 49 

35,563 11 

for fuel and lights, 

13,373 4 i 

- 

7,878 81 

7,283 23 

27,930 11 

56,465 56 

for medical supplies, 

5,496 19 

- 

7oi 53 

765 60 

3.204 32 

10,167 64 

for furnishing. 

10,298 41 

- 

8,935 00 

3,691 15 

8,647 06 

31,571 62 

for ordinary repairs, 

13,452 42 

- 

181 88 

1,372 28 

17,294 13 

32,300 71 

for extraordinary expenses, 

- 

6,942 49 




6,942 49 

for all other purposes, 

24,048 20 

- 

i,357 82 

5,920 38 

42,522 21 

73,848 61 

| 

Total expenses. 

$209,140 32 

$90,996 19 

$ 49 . 39 ° 50 

$164,839 53 

$312,772 03 

$827,138 57 

Cash balance, ... 

$31,809 59 

. 

$151 04 

$10,875 91 

$18,528 96 

$61,365 50 

Indebtedness, ... 


$29,372 48 


- 

- 

29,372 48 

Due from localities, 

_ _ _ 

$41,450 69 

$ 4 ir 53 

$9,438 38 

$935 03 

$52,235 63 

from individuals, - 

- 

5,877 98 

- 

2,044 00 

- 

7,921 98 

from all other sources, 


98 10 



98 10 

223 IO 

Total assets, - 

- 

$ 47,426 77 

$ 4 H 53 

$11,482 38 

$1,033 13 

$60 380 71 

Charge for public patients, 

* $4 00 

$4 50 

$4 00 

$4 50 

$2 65 


Average weekly cost of support 

• 

5 87 

4 87 

4 67 

2 67 



* Exclusive of clothing and miscellaneous expenses. 


Concerning- the hospitals for the acute insane, in their fifteenth annual report 
for 1881, the State Board of Charities say: 

The total present capacity of the several State hospitals for the acute insane 
is for one thousand six hundred patients. The completion of the Hudson River 
State Hospital and the Buffalo State Asylum, in accordance with the plans 
adopted, will give a capacity for the treatment by the State of two thousand two 
hundred acute insane. The average number of patients in these institutions the 
past year was only about one thousand two hundred, showing an excess of State 
accommodations for four hundred patients. In the event of the completion of the 
institutions referred to, the excess of accommodations by the State for this class 
would be for one thousand patients. It is believed that no acute insane have 
been rejected by the State institutions the past year, on account of the lack of 
room. In considering the needs of the State for its acute insane, it should be 
borne in mind that the counties of New York, Kings and Monroe, embracing a 
population, according to the census of 1880, of one million nine hundred and fifty- 
one thousand and twenty-eight, provide for their acute, as well as their chronic, 
insane, in local institutions. This leaves the State to provide only for the acute 
insane arising in the other counties having a population of three million one hun- 





















































































PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


327 


dred and thirty-three thousand nine hundred and fifty-four. We believe that the 
existing State accommodations for this class will prove fully adequate for several 
years to come for all the acute insane of the State, except New York, Kings and 
Monroe counties, and therefore recommend that no further appropriations be made 
for the present to enlarge the State hospitals for the acute insane. 

Concerning the asylums for the chronic insane the State Board of Charities say: 

These institutions are designed for the chronic pauper insane, transferred from 

the county poor-houses or from the various State hospitals for the acute insane 

as not cured. The State is districted between the two institutions. The charge 
to the counties for maintenance and care at the Willard Asylum is restricted to 
the actual expense; and the rate at the Binghamton Asylum cannot, under the 
statute, exceed that of the former institution. The managers of these institutions 
have no authority to receive private patients. 

It will be seen that the State asylums for the chronic insane now have 

capacity for about twenty-one hundred patients. From the opening of the Wil¬ 
lard Asylum for this class, in 1869, its accommodations have been taken by the 

counties as fast as made ready, and it has now no spare room. The indications 
are that the Binghamton Asylum will also soon be filled. There are nearly two 

thousand chronic insane still in the various counties, exclusive of those in New 
York, Kings and Monroe. Of these over eight hundred are in counties which 
thus far have failed to make any special provision for their care, expecting to 
transfer them to the State institutions as soon as accommodations are provided. 

The inquiry, therefore, becomes important, what shall be the future policy of 
the State in regard to the chronic insane of those counties that do not 

desire to make local provision for their care ? When the present accommoda¬ 
tions of the Binghamton Asylum are absorbed, there will still remain over five 

hundred of this class of insane in the counties for whom no adequate provision 

exists. The Willard Asylum, as before stated, cannot probably be judiciously 
further enlarged. 

The Binghamton Asylum, as has been shown, possesses administrative facili¬ 
ties, water supply, heating arrangements, and other essential requirements, for a 
much greater number of patients than the present building will accommodate. 

We believe, therefore, that the desired end can be the soonest and best attained 

by the extension of this building upon modified and inexpensive plans, and the 
erection of detached buildings upon the grounds of the institution, similar to those 
in use at the Willard Asylum. At the same time, the plan would be in harmony 
with that of the Willard Asylum, which has been found by mature experience 
practicable; and the policy of the State, in regard to the chronic insane, would 

thus be unified. 


PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


6 


28 


CHAPTER VI. 

The Board of State Commissioners of Public Charities; its Powers and Duties, and 
its Method of Working.—The Public and the Poor-houses; System of Visita¬ 
tion.— Incorporated Charities in the State. — The Board and the State Institu¬ 
tions.— Unification of the System of State Charities. — The State Board of 
Charities; its Powers Enlarged. — The Board and the Poor-houses. — It effects 
Important Reforms.—Removal of Children and of the Insane. — Hospitals Estab¬ 
lished, and Uniform System of Records Secured. — State and Alien Paupers.— 
Beneficiaries, Valuation, Receipts and Expenditures of the Charitable Institu¬ 
tions in the State. 

The condition of the various public and private charitable institutions of the 
State was the subject of inquiry, from time to time, by the constituted authorities 
and citizens interested in them; and the evils in their management were deplored. 
It was difficult, however, to excite general interest in their conduct — as difficult 
as it is to-day to arouse the people to the necessity of remedying the wrongs 
connected with the county jails. In 1866, the attention of the late Hon. John 
V. L. Pruyn, Chancellor of the University, having been called to abuses in several 
public charities, he presented the subject to Governor Fenton, with the suggestion 
that a supervisory board be created. In his message to the Legislature of 1867 
the Governor referred to the subject as follows: 

For several years past the State has made large annual appropriations to aid 
in the support of orphan asylums, hospitals, homes of the friendless and other 
charitable institutions. No adequate provision, however, has been made by law for 
the inspection of these and other corporations of a like character, holding their 
charters under the State, or for any effectual inquiry into their operations and 
management. There are a great number of these institutions, and the amount 
contributed for their support by public authorities and by public benevolence is 
large, and so many persons — the aged, the helpless, the infirm and the young — 

fall under their care, that I deem it expedient that the State should exercise a 

reasonable degree of supervision over them. To this end, I recommend the appoint¬ 
ment of a board of commissioners, in such manner as the Legislature may deem 
proper, to serve without compensation, but whose actual expenses should be paid, 
and to be invested with such powers and charged with such duties, to effect the 
object in view, as may be thought judicious. I have no doubt that gentlemen of 

high character and conceded qualifications can be found in every part of the State, 

whose public spirit would induce them to serve as such a commission. 

A bill authorizing the appointment of such a commission was introduced into 
the Assembly, February 25, by Hon. Charles S. Hoyt, member of the Assembly 


PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


329 


from the county of Yates, and on the rst of March was reported from the Com¬ 
mittee on Ways and Means by Hon. Daniel P. Wood. The bill passed on the 
27th of the same month, by a vote of seventy-nine to ten; and on the 12th of 
April was reported by Hon. Charles J. Folger from the Judiciary Committee of 
the Senate, passing that body on the 19th by a vote of nineteen to one, and 

subsequently receiving the signature of the Governor. 

By this act (Laws of 1867, chapter 591) it was provided that the Governor, 
by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, should appoint eight persons, 
one to reside in each judicial district, to be designated the Board of State Com¬ 
missioners of Public Charities. The Commissioners were not to receive compensation 
for their services, but were to be reimbursed for their actual expenses while in the 
discharge of official duties. They were authorized to visit and inspect all char¬ 

itable and correctional institutions, excepting prisons, receiving aid from the 
State: to inquire into their financial condition, their management and care of 
inmates, the conduct of officers and managers, and all other matters pertaining 
to their usefulness. They were authorized to administer oaths to witnesses, and, 
if need be, to compel their attendance. By the Laws of 1870, chapter 281, the 
Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State, Comptroller and Attorney-General were 
constituted members ex-officio of the Board. The Board has little or no compul¬ 
sory powers. It seeks, under the law, to work along the line of private and 

local effort, and by influencing public opinion or official judgment, to effect salu¬ 
tary results. While in some cases it would undoubtedly be better if the Board 
possessed reserve power to enforce economy in expenditures and humanity in 
treatment, it is equally plain that for ordinary purposes it is more effective as 

an intelligent guide than it would be as an imperious governor. 

The Board organized by selecting the Hon. John V. L. Pruyn President,* and 
he held the position, with slight interruption, until his death, a period of over ten 
years. Mr. Pruyn’s courteous bearing, humanitarian sympathies and benevolence 
of character; his fidelity to his trusts and marked executive abilities, and his zeal 
in every good cause, rendered him invaluable as an organizer of the work of the 
Board. He visited all the charitable institutions of the State, closely examining 
into their methods of administration, and in extended tours abroad he inquired 
thoroughly into the charitable systems of the leading nations of Europe; and he 
gave the charities of the State the entire benefit of his exhaustive researches. It 
may be added with propriety, that he was satisfied by his investigations that New 
York frequently led, and was always fully abreast with, the most advanced and 


*A biographical sketch of Hon. John V. L. Pruyn will be found on pages 162 to 164 in volume III of The Public 
Service of the State of New York. 

42 



330 


PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


intelligent sentiment of the world; and that, while much still remained to be done, 
nevertheless much had been accomplished by the State toward securing broad and 
scientific methods of administration for organized benevolence. 

Prior to the organization of the Board, the general public had but slight 
knowledge of the character of the poor-houses. They were seldom visited, and 
little or no interest was felt in their condition. Now, in most of the counties, 
in addition to the regular inspections made by members and officers of the Board, 
they are frequently visited by intelligent persons, who carefully investigate their 
affairs and management. While many of these visitations are entirely voluntary, 

some of the visitors are appointed by the Board, and they have been valuable 
co-laborers with it in the institution of important reforms. The State Charities 
Aid Association, a private incorporation organized under the general law May 11, 
1872, has been an important and effective auxiliary of the State Board of Chari¬ 
ties. The State Board has appointed local visitors from among the members of this 
association, and the organization, besides accomplishing much useful work in the way 
of visitation, has established in the city of New York the first training school for 
nurses in the United States. By the provisions of an act of the Legislature, passed 
in 1881,* Justices of the Supreme Court are authorized to appoint visitors of chari¬ 
table institutions, upon nomination of the State Charities Aid Association; and the 
Association is required to report annually to the State Board of Charities. 

In 1869 the Board carefully examined into the management of the incorpo¬ 
rated charities of the State, and submitted a detailed report thereon to the 
Legislature of 1870. The aggregate charities of citizens is very great, and the 
State has done wisely in stimulating individual activity to well-directed benevo¬ 

lence. These institutions are generally conducted with a prudence and foresight 
commensurate with the generous impulses which gave them being and bring to 
them continued support. 

The Board made a thorough examination of State institutions in 1870, and 
reported thereon to the Legislature of 1871. To its efficient direction of a broad 
and comprehensive policy with regard to them, is due their improved condition, 
and the growing unification of the system of State charities. 

The Legislature of 1873 f conferred upon the Board new and enlarged powers. 
The name of the Board was changed to that of “ The State Board of Charities,” 
and three additional members were authorized to be appointed, one for the county 

of Kings and two for the county of New York. The power of visitation was 

extended to all charitable, eleemosynary, correctional or reformatory institutions, 


*Laws of 1881, chapter 323; passed May 20, 1881. 
f Laws of 1873, chapters 571 and 661. 





PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


excepting prisons, whether receiving State aid or maintained by municipalities or 
otherwise ; and all persons, associations or corporations were prohibited from estab¬ 
lishing or keeping any asylum, institution, home or retreat for the detention, treat¬ 
ment and care of the insane or persons of unsound mind without obtaining a 
license therefor from the Board. Provision was also made for the appointment of a 
State Commissioner in Lunacy, who was to be a member ex-officio of the Board. 
This office was subsequently rendered independent. 

The Board was required by the act of 1867 to visit, at least once in two 
years, each of the county poor-houses and city alms-houses in the State. Nearly 
all of these institutions were visited in 1868, and a full report was made to the 
Legislature of 1869. They were found to have sadly degenerated, and their 
defects were plainly pointed out. In many of these institutions improvements were 
thereafter made, of a marked and gratifying character. Many counties substituted 
new buildings for the old and dilapidated structures, and the general condition of 
most of the poor-houses was greatly improved. The Board entered upon a com¬ 
prehensive plan of reform in poor-house management. Among its achievements, 
vitally important in the extirpation of hereditary vice, was the removal of children 
from the poor-houses, which were formerly mere nurseries of pauperism. In 1875, 
upon the recommendation of the Board, the Legislature directed* the removal of all 
healthy and intelligent children over three years of age, prohibited the sending of 
this class to these institutions, and directed that they should be maintained and cared 
for in families and asylums; and in 1878 the Legislature directedf the removal of all 
children over two years of age, without regard to their mental and physical condition. 
The Board has aimed to secure the removal of acute insane from the poor-houses, 
and the transfer of chronic insane to the Willard or the Binghamton Asylum. In 
1871 the Legislature authorized the Boards to hear and determine applications of 
county superintendents of the poor for exemption from the Willard Asylum act. 
Owing to the lack of necessary accommodations, the Board felt compelled to grant 
such applications in cases where there seemed reason to expect a fair degree of 
care by the local authorities. The Board also endeavored to secure proper medical 
treatment of the sick, and their care in separate apartments. In the examination in 
1868 it was found that the sick were treated in the same apartments they occupied 
when well, and generally in association with the able-bodied. This was changed in 
many of the poor-houses, and hospital apartments were furnished, with proper attend¬ 
ance. It was owing to the efforts of the Board that the custodial branch of 
the New York Asylum for Idiots was established, and feeble-minded females trans¬ 
ferred thereto, from the poor-houses. The Board also obtained the passage of 


* Laws of 1875, chapter 173. 


f Laws of 1878, chapter 404. 


t Laws of 1871, chapter 713. 




PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


an act in 1875* requiring the keepers of poor-houses and alms-houses to maintain 
a uniform system of records, according to prescribed forms, which records are 
transmitted to the Board monthly. Public attention has also been called to the 
abuses incident to out-door relief, to the necessity of keeping the inmates of 
all institutions fully employed, and to the proper care of unsettled poor in 
the State. The latter class are now committed, under the law,J* by the county 
superintendents and other officers, direct to certain poor-houses and alms-houses, 
designated by the Board, and, until disposed of, are maintained there as the wards 
of the State. The Secretary, in his discretion, is authorized to cause the removal 
of any person committed under the act, upon his or her request, to the place of 
legal settlement or to friends willing to aid in supporting them; to transfer any 
insane State pauper to the appropriate asylum, or any child to any orphan asylum, 
or to provide for its care in any family, by indenture, adoption or otherwise. The 
law brings generally under its control, sick, infirm and disabled poor persons, coming 
within our borders, from other States and countries; secures to them, for the time 
being, proper treatment and care, at moderate expense, and ultimately places the 
burden of the support of the majority of them upon relatives or outside localities, 
legally liable for their maintenance. Its operations, therefore, are practical and 
attended with sound public economy. The operations of the law since it went 
into effect October 22, 1873, may be briefly summed up as follows : 

Whole number of persons committed as State paupers, to October 1, 1881, 
8,147; discharged upon recovery, 2,215; placed in families or otherwise secured 
situations, 64; absconded, 684; transferred to other institutions, 54 ; provided with 
transportation to reach their homes or places of legal settlement in other States 
and countries, 4,758 ; died, 208. Of those under care October 1, 1881, 4 were 
committed in 1874, 4 in 1875, 7 in 1876, 13 in 1877, 12 in 1878, 34 in 1879, 
37 in 1880, and 53 in 1881. 

In 1880 the Legislature authorized^ the Board, upon its suggestion, to remove 
to their homes in various countries of Europe, whenever they were sent to this 
country and found in this State, all crippled, blind, lunatic and otherwise infirm 
alien paupers. The whole number of such paupers returned to Europe since the 
act went into effect, July 1, 1880, is seventy-five. The entire expenditure has 
been $1,953.82 ; the expenditure for each person, $26.50. 

The expense of maintaining these seventy-five helpless persons in our chari¬ 
table institutions, at the moderate rate of $2.50 per week, would amount to 
$9,750 per year. If we estimate the remainder of their lives at the low average 
of fifteen years, the ultimate expense for their care would amount to $146,250. 


* Laws of 1875, chapter 140. 


f Laws of 1863, chapter 661. 


X Laws of 1880, chapter 549. 



PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


n 1 

All of these helpless and infirm persons were found in the alms-houses, 

asylums, or other institutions of this State, and they had in all cases been 

dependent upon public or private charity before leaving their homes, and also 
from the time of their landing in this country. In every instance, the shipment 
of these paupers to our shores was clearly traced to the authorities of European 
cities or towns, or to some organized association, guardian, relative or friend, and 
with no other possible motive than to escape the burden of their maintenance 
and care. No return of this class has been made, where it would sunder family 
ties, or where the person had been long in this country, or had relatives or 
friends here upon whom to depend for support. Correspondence has also been 

had with consuls and other representatives abroad of the Federal Government, for 
the purpose of preventing the shipment of alien paupers to our shores. 

The results of the institution of the State Board of Charities may be summed 
up in the improvement of poor-houses and their management, the reduction to the 
minimum of the causes of pauperism, the exclusion as far as possible of alien 
paupers from the State, the better care of indigent unfortunates, the more humane 
treatment of the insane and the more economical expenditure of private and public 
contributions for charitable institutions. The magnitude of the interests under the 
supervision of the Board and the munificent liberality of the people of the State, 
imperial in their humanity as in their resources and giving as freely as they have 
received, may be seen' by the following table, which shows the number of benefici¬ 
aries in the various public charitable institutions in New York, the valuation of the 
real and personal property owned by these institutions, and their receipts and expen¬ 
ditures for the fiscal year 1880-81 : 



Beneficiaries. 

Valuation. 

Receipts. 

Expenditures. 

New York State Lunatic Asylum, .... 

1,025 

$ 745,704 42 

$240,949 91 

$209,140 32 

Willard Asjdum for the Insane, .... 

1,884 

1,308,958 97 

331,300 99 

312,772 03 

Hudson River State Hospital, ..... 

430 

1,422,261 or 

80,364 80 

90,996 19 

Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane, ... 

219 

1,364,386 66 

49,541 54 

49,390 50 

State Homoeopathic Asylum for the Insane, 

340 

681,093 78 

175,715 44 

164,839 53 

Binghamton Asylum for the Chronic Insane, 

66 

582,000 00 



New York Institution for the Blind. ... - 

204 

553,446 00 

81,946 20 

69,144 66 

New York State Institution for the Blind, 

181 

359,419 61 

42,708 80 

38,224 12 

New York Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, - 

484 

555,000 00 

142,673 30 

142,673 30 

New York Asylum for Idiots, .... 

305 

211,728 31 

57,322 39 

54,858 82 

Custodial Branch, ------ 

105 

5,500 00 

13,626 00 

13,240 08 

New York House of Refuge, .... 

741 

568,550 00 

157,375 39 

152,363 02 

Western House of Refuge, ..... 

574 

368,766 63 

113,614 35 

111,465 92 

Orphan Asylums and Homes of the Friendless, 

23,322 

14,950,102 87 

4,431,683 45 

4,073,868 42 

Hospitals, - -- - - -- -- 

25,073 

6,448,392 70 

1 , 418,359 10 

1,269,313 49 

Dispensaries, ....... 

271,723 

463,007 11 

188,476 26 

167,046 99 

County poor-houses, ------- 

15,697 

2,239,898 00 

583,809 39 

583,809 39 

temporary relief, ------ 

50,418 

- 

584,398 73 

584,398 73 

City alms-houses, ...... 

41,825 

4 , 130,000 OO 

1,096,645 93 

1,096,645 93 

temporary relief, ...... 

26,730 

- 

75,952 30 

75,952 30 

Total, 

461,346 

$38,958,216 07 

$9,866,464 24 

$9,260,143 74 





















334 


PUBLIC CHARITIES. 


It will be seen that the people of New York, in their State and incorporated 
institutions, have invested nearly $40,000,000, and expend annually in their mainte¬ 
nance, and in the care of infirm and needy poor, nearly $10,000,000. These large 
sums show the importance of exercising vigilant supervision over their expenditures 
and the method of management, to the end that there be no squandering of the 
large contributions of the people to the purposes of charity. 


STATE COMMISSIONERS 

Ex-members of the Board. 


CHARLES M. CRANDALL,* * * § 1867 

JAMES K. PLACE, 1867 

FREDERICK H. JAMES, 1867-69 

SANFORD EASTMAN,* 1869 

WILLIAM N. COIT, 1871 

JOHN T. HUDSON, 1872 

JAMES O. PUTNAM, 1873 

THEODORE W. DWIGHT,§ 1867-74 

NATHAN BISHOP* 1868-75 

HOWARD POTTER, 1873-75 

BENJAMIN B. SHERMAN, 1873-75 

JAMES A. DeGRAUW, 1873-75 

CHARLES H. MARSHALL, 1875-76 

ABIAL A. LOW, 1875-77 

HENRY HOGUET, 1875-77 

JOHN V. L. PRUYN,*f 1867-77 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT* 1875-79 

HARVEY G. EASTMAN* 1867-79 

JAMES ROOSEVELT, 1879-80 

MARTIN B. ANDERSON, % 1867-80 


Officers of the State 
President. 

WM. P. LETCH WORTH, March 14, 1878. 
Vice-President. 

JOHN C. DEVEREUX, March 14, 1878. 


OF PUBLIC CHARITIES. 

THEODORE B. BRONSON* 1879-81. 

EDWARD C. DONNELLY, 1877-82/ 

STEPHEN SMITH, 1881-82. 

Present State Board of Charities. 

THE LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR, ex-officio , 
THE SECRETARY OF STATE, ex-officio , 
THE COMPTROLLER, ex-officio , 

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL, ex-officio , 


EDWARD W. FOSTER, 1867-87. 

SAMUEL F. MILLER, 1867-90. 

WILLIAM P. LETCHWORTH, | 1873-85. 

JOHN C. DEVEREUX, 1874-83. 

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL, 1876-89. 
RIPLEY ROPES, 1877-89. 

JOHN H. VAN ANTWERP, 1878-89. 

SARAH M. CARPENTER, 188(^89. 

OSCAR CRAIG, 1880-84. 

JOHN J. MILHAU, 1882-89. 

WILLIAM R. STEWART, 1882-89. 


Board of Charities. 

Secretary. 

CHABLES S. HOYT, June 5, 1868. 

Assistant Secretary. 

JAMES O. FANNING, June ii, 1874. 


* Deceased. 

f President, with slight interval, from July ii, 1867, until his death. 

\ President from March 8, 1877, to September 6, 187.7. 

§ Vice-President from July ir, 1867, to June 11, 1874. 

| Vice-President from June it, 1874, to March 14, 1878. 




















































































WILLIAM P. LETCHWORTH, 

PRESIDENT OF THE STATE BOARD OF CHARITIES, 

W AS born at Brownville, Jefferson county, New York, on the 26th of May, 
1823. His father, Josiah Letchworth, came of English ancestry, and was 
born in Philadelphia, where he passed his youth and early manhood. His mother 
was a native of New Jersey. Both were members of the Society of Friends, 
and soon after their marriage removed from their home in Burlington, New Jersey, 
to Northern New York. Josiah Letchworth was a man of positive character, 
large intelligence and philanthropic spirit; he was a sturdy advocate of the reform 
measures which engaged public attention in his day, and was among the first to 
champion the cause of popular education ; a zealous partisan of the public school 
system, he devoted time, thought and energy to its successful development. He 
was outspoken and eloquent in his advocacy of temperance and in his opposition to 
human slavery. Removing after a few years from Jefferson county to Auburn, New 
York, he became identified with many affairs of public interest. He was for many 
years an intimate friend and associate of the late William H. Seward. 

William P. Letchworth entered early upon a mercantile career, holding a con¬ 
fidential position in one of the largest importing houses in the country. In 1848, 
declining a liberal offer of partnership in the business, he went to Buffalo, New 
York, where he formed a connection with Samuel F. and Pascal P. Pratt, under 
the firm name of Pratt & Letchworth, taking the position of managing partner 
in a wholesale business of importing and manufacturing saddlery hardware. About 
this time, the Buffalo Work-house, now known as the Erie County Penitentiary, was 
established. To this institution large numbers of both sexes were sentenced on short 
terms of imprisonment. No plan had yet been devised for utilizing their labor .or 
to provide against the demoralization incident to enforced idleness and close confine¬ 
ment. Mr. Letchworth’s attention being called to this subject, he conceived the idea 
of employing the prisoners in making goods which were then generally imported, 
rendering their services available by so subdividing the work and multiplying pro- 
that each individual would be required to deal only with a part of an article 

[335] 


cesses 


336 


WILLIAM P. LETCHWORTH. 


instead of with the whole. Prior to this time convict labor had been employed in 
the State Prisons where the length of sentence afforded each prisoner ample time 
in which to master a trade, but a mechanical industry which should successfully 
employ the labor of prisoners whose terms of imprisonment ranged only from ten 
to ninety days had not been hinted at till Mr. Letchworth showed its practicability. 
In connection with the growth of Pratt & Letchworth’s business a pressing necessity 
was felt for the manufacture, by themselves, of malleableized cast iron, the process 
of making which was then but imperfectly developed, and was looked upon somewhat 
in the light of one of the secret arts. Mr. Letchworth determined to embark in the 
enterprise. For several years he devoted himself to the work, accomplishing as 
a result the production of a superior quality of iron, a fair profit upon the capital 
invested, and the establishing of the Buffalo Malleable Iron Works, now the largest 
establishment of the kind in the country. Mr. Letchworth’s enterprises grew to large 
proportions, and his efforts were crowned with such success as the business man most 
prizes, but all this stood for protracted and arduous labor and for health considerably 
impaired. He was at length compelled to relax his efforts in the direction of busi¬ 
ness and to seek rest on his beautiful estate, “Glen Iris,” on the upper Genesee. In 
his partial retirement in his charming and hospitable country home, Mr. Letchworth 
found time to cultivate his taste for polite literature and belle-lettres. Extended 
reading, foreign travel, a critical study of men and their work, and an active sym¬ 
pathy with that which is best in thought and purest in sentiment had already 
imparted fulness and symmetry to the character of the man, and this release from 
business responsibility afforded a freer and finer play to the faculties than they had 
before known. An ardent lover of the beautiful in whatever form expressed, Mr. 
Letchworth found pleasure in the encouragement of the Fine Arts. During this 
time and for a number of years he was a regular contributor to a Boston magazine, 
and found recreation in pen sketches of the works of American artists. In 1874 he 
was elected President of the Buffalo Fine Art Academy, a position held by him for 
three years. He was cordially tendered a fourth term, but was compelled to decline. 
During the three years of his Presidency, he commanded the hearty co-operation of 
those of his fellow-citizens who were interested in the Fine Arts, and through their 
munificence was enabled not only to pay off the debts which had long rested upon 
the institution, but to create also an endowment fund whereby the academy was 
placed upon a sound financial basis. The membership was increased; the annual 
exhibitions were made more comprehensive; the gallery was enriched by the addi¬ 
tion of fine pictures, and the condition of the Academy was in all respects greatly 
improved. 

Mr. Letchworth has also served the public as President of the Buffalo His¬ 
torical Society, as one of the Trustees of the old Buffalo Savings Bank, as a 


WILLIAM P. LETCHWORTH. 


337 


I rustee of the Buffalo Female Academy, and has always been steadfastly devoted 
to the interests of the various charities of the city in which he resided. 

With the purpose in view of removing all obstacles that might stand in the way 
of an entire devotion of his time to the public interest, save only as his atten¬ 
tion might be required in his private affairs, and with the view of directing his 
energies toward the accomplishment of long-cherished dreams of philanthropic use¬ 
fulness, in 1869 Mr. Letchworth withdrew entirely from the firm with which he 
had been so prosperously and happily associated for a quarter of a century, and 
in April, 1873, was appointed by Governor Dix Commissioner of the State Board 
of Charities, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Dr. Samuel Eastman. 
This appointment was unsolicited and quite unexpected by him. On entering upon 
his duties, Mr. Letchworth’s attention was arrested and his sympathies aroused by 
the unhappy condition of the children in poor-houses and alms-houses, of which there 
were then about two thousand five hundred in the State. He found the children in 
these institutions subjected to the most degrading associations, the companions of 
debauched and dissolute criminals, and in a way to be corrupted for life. He insti¬ 
tuted careful and searching inquiries into the lives of those who had been reared 
in alms-houses, and found that in a large majority of cases they had sunk back into 
pauperism or had become in turn criminals themselves. There were schools con¬ 
nected with some of the poor-houses, in which it was supposed children were taught 
the rudiments of an English education, but an inspection of these revealed the fact 
that they supplied none of the conditions essential to healthful mental development. 
Here were children to be saved from utter demoralization, with all the hard facts 
of their environment arrayed against their release from a thraldom worse than death. 

For three years Mr. Letchworth wholly devoted his energies to the work of 
correcting this evil, and in his labors was sustained by the officers and members 
of the Board who were in earnest sympathy with him in his enterprise. Through 
personal appeals and forcible presentation of the subject to the local authorities, 
the system was, in many counties, voluntarily abandoned; meanwhile, a special 
appropriation of $3,000 was made by the Legislature in the supply bill of 1874, 
for the purpose of making an examination into the mental and physical condition 
of the inmates of poor-houses and alms-houses, as well as an inquiry into their 
antecedents and personal history. This was an appropriation which Mr. Letchworth 
had labored earnestly to secure, and by it an opportunity was afforded him of 
obtaining statistical information relating to this unfortunate class that could not 
have been otherwise reached. Mr. Letchworth having been empowered by the 
State Board to make an examination and special report regarding the children, in 
connection with this inquiry, entered upon his work in a systematic way and made 
extended visitations to the poor-houses and alms-houses throughout the State, making 

43 


WILLIAM P. LETCHWORTH. 


a close study of the poor-house system as it affected pauper children. His report 
was a faithful and comprehensive exhibit of one of the greatest abuses then existing 
in the State. By means of an ingenious chart and the use of colors in its prepara¬ 
tion, the varying conditions of these pauper children as affecting their mental, 
moral and physical status were shown with the utmost clearness. In this report 

Mr. Letchworth strongly recommended such action on the part of the Legislature 
as would remove the children, excepting such as were under two years of age, 
from these establishments and would place them in families, orphan asylums and 

other appropriate institutions, so as to completely break up the system of rearing 
children in poor-houses. The report was accepted, approved and transmitted to 

the Legislature with the report of the Board, January 15, 1875 (Senate Document 
No. 15), and became the basis of subsequent legislation, resulting in the enact¬ 
ment of a law for the better care of pauper and destitute children, under which 
thousands of little ones were removed from the poor-houses and placed in families, 
asylums and other institutions remote from the contaminating influences to which 

they had been subjected. In the year following, Mr. Letchworth made an exhaustive 
report to the Board on the Department for Pauper Children connected with the 
New York City Alms-house system, which completed his work of investigation. 

The law to which reference has been made, breaking up the system of poor- 
house care for children, was to go into effect the year following its passage, but 
it was by many deemed impracticable to dispense with the alms-house care of 
children in New York city. A bill was accordingly prepared, exempting New 
York county from the operation of the mandatory law, and was presented to the 
Legislature, with the indorsement of the Commissioners of Charities of New York 
city and of many leading citizens, and was further supported by the Metropolitan 
press. Mr. Letchworth’s report, which was transmitted to the Legislature, with 
the report of the Board, January 14, 1876 (Senate Document No. 19), showed in 
its true light the want of economy in the system, its gross inhumanity, and the 
moral and physical degradation it worked upon those living within the circle of 
its baleful influences. This proved so effective that a strong revulsion of feeling 
followed; the press condemned what it had but lately approved, and public senti¬ 
ment became pronounced against the evil. Mr. Letchworth’s recommendations were 
accepted, and the Randall’s Island Nurseries, which had long been a reeking source 
of corruption and demoralization, were abolished, and their patronage, in the form of 
salaries to officers, amounting annually to about $20,000, was extinguished. 

In the following year, in compliance with the wishes of the Board, Mr. 
Letchworth made a report on the Children’s Saving and Reformatory Institutions 
of the State, which was transmitted to the Legislature with the report of the Board, 
January 15, 1876 (Senate Document No. 19). These institutions numbered one 


WILLIAM P. LETCHWORTH. 


339 


hundred and thirty-six, without including in the enumeration their many branches, 
and embraced under their care about eighteen thousand children. With but two 
exceptions all of these institutions and a goodly number of their branches were 
personally visited by Mr. Letchworth, the work occupying him about a year. In 
these visitations Mr. Letchworth was accompanied by a stenographer, and while 
the various systems were carefully delineated by the best means that could be 
employed, the experiences of a large number of life-long workers in the children’s 
cause were given to the public in their own words. He took this opportunity to 
press upon the managers of the child-saving institutions visited, the desirability of 
freely receiving the pauper children heretofore committed to the poor-houses upon 
the same footing as other unfortunate children, and at the same time urged the 
adoption of a vigorous system of placing out children permanently in families, so 
that there might be no accumulation in these institutions, thus facilitating carrying 
into effect the law forbidding pauper children being sent to the poor-houses and 
alms-houses. 

Mr. Letchworth was elected Vice-President of the State Board of Charities 
June i, 1874, in place of Howard Potter, of the first judicial district, and having 
been reappointed as Commissioner of the Eighth Judicial District by Governor 
Robinson April 21, 1877, for the full term of eight years, on the death of the 
Hon. John V. L. Pruyn, President of the Board, he was—March 14, 1878 — 
unanimously elected to that office, which he has since continued to hold by suc¬ 
cessive annual re-elections. Since he was first commissioned as a member of the 
Board he has devoted all his time, save that required for the management of his 
private affairs, to the work of the Board, without compensation. With other 
members of the Board he has been engaged in protracted investigations, which 
have required great discretion and patience. In the prosecution of his work in 
later years he has visited institutions in nearly all the Northern, Western and 
Middle States, and has also carried his spirit of investigation into other coun¬ 
tries, studying closely wherever he went the care and treatment of the dependent 
and delinquent classes. During the last year he devoted seven months to travel in 
England, Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the German States, France, 
Switzerland, Holland and Belgium, giving his whole time to the business of gath¬ 
ering such information as would best aid him in the discharge of his duties. From 
time to time Mr. Letchworth has made other reports than the few that we have 
enumerated. They treat upon a variety of subjects, all in the general direction of 
the philanthropic work to which the bent of his energy has been directed, and bear 
ample testimony to that thoroughness and conscientiousness which is eminently 
characteristic of the man. 


STEPHEN SMITH, M. D., 


T ATELY Commissioner of State Charities for the First Judicial District, is 
—4 now State Commissioner in Lunacy, and his biography will be found on 
page 35 1 °f this volume. 


WILLIAM R. STEWART, 

C OMMISSIONER OF STATE CHARITIES for the First Judicial District, 
was born in New York city, December 3, 1852. He is of American 

ancestry, his parents and grandparents having been residents of New York 
city. Mr. Stewart was educated at the private schools of George C. Anthon 
and Elie Charlier, in New York city, by private tutors, and at the Columbia 
College Law School, where he graduated in the class of 1873 with the degree 
of Bachelor of Laws. He was admitted to the Bar February 4, 1874, and since 
that time has been occupied with the business of his profession, his office being 
at 54 William street, New York. In October, 1871, he enlisted in Company “K” 
of the Seventh Regiment of the National Guard of the State of New York. He 
served seven years as a private and was honorably discharged March 27, 1879. 
Mr. Stewart is an active member of Grace Episcopal Church, in New York city. 
He has interested himself in Sunday-school work, and has been for two years 
Superintendent of Grace Chapel School, one of the largest Sunday-schools in the 
city. Mr. Stewart is a Republican. He was a Delegate from the Seventh Assembly 
District to the Republican State Convention at Saratoga in 1878, and in 1880 and 
1881 he represented the same district on the New York City Republican General 
Committee. June, 1880, he was appointed by President Hayes one of the New York 
State Commissioners for the proposed Exposition of 1883. In August, 1881, he 
was designated one of the Commissioners to receive the foreign delegates to the 
Yorktown Centennial. May 31, 1881, he was appointed Commissioner of State 

Charities. 


[ 340 ] 







































% 


vim 




CvAA__ 


£lLt C-) 



















EDWARD C. DONNELLY, 

ATELY Commissioner of State Charities from New York county, was born 
in the city of New York, March 2, 1827. His parents were from County 
Tyrone, Province of Ulster, Ireland. His preliminary education was obtained at 
the Grammar School of Columbia College and at private institutions. His colle¬ 
giate education was acquired in the Georgetown College, District of Columbia. 
After graduating from this institution Mr. Donnelly entered the law office of 
Jonathan Miller, of New York city, but although admitted to the bar he never 
entered upon the practice of his profession. The business of his life has been 
largely mercantile. He was formerly a member of the firm of T. and N. 
Donnelly & Company in the wholesale dry goods business, and also of the firm 
of Fisher, Donnelly & Company, British importers. Mr. Donnelly retired from 
active business in 1865, and in 1867 went to Europe, where he resided eight 
years. His early scholarly tastes now had fresh opportunity for indulgence, and 
he studied chemistry, natural philosophy and zoology in the lecture-rooms of the 
Sorbonne. Mr. Donnelly is at present a member of the Board of Education of 
the city of New York. He resides at Manhattanville. 


[ 341 ] 


JOHN J. MILHAU, M. D., 


C OMMISSIONER OF STATE CHARITIES from New York county, was 
born in France, December 28, 1828. His grandparents, of ancient and 
noble French ancestry, were planters in the French West India Colonies, and 
at the time of the great French Revolution, losing all their property, and their 
lives being threatened, they escaped to the United States and became American 
citizens. His parents were born in Maryland, and in 1830, after traveling abroad 
for a few years, transferred their residence from Baltimore to New York city. 
John j. Milhau was educated in private schools in New York city. He studied 
medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, in New York city, graduating 
from that institution in 1850. In 1851 he was appointed Assistant Surgeon in the 
United States Army; in 1862 Surgeon and Major; in 1864 Brevet Lieutenant- 
Colonel “for gallant service during the campaign before Richmond;” in 1865 Brevet 
Colonel “for gallant and meritorious services during the war;” in 1866 Brevet 
Brigadier-General “for meritorious and distinguished services” at Hart’s island, in 
New York harbor, where cholera prevailed. From January, 1852, until the fall of 
1861, Dr. Milhau served at different frontier posts in California, Oregon and in 
the Western Territories. In 1858 he marched with the Sixth Regiment United 
States Infantry from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to Benecia, California; in 1861 
he joined the Army of the Potomac as Medical Inspector; in 1862 he served as 
Medical Director of the Third Army Corps through the Peninsular campaign of 
that year, participating in the seige of Yorktown, in the battles of Williamsburg, 
Seven Pines and other severe engagements; afterward he served successively as 
Medical Director of Hospitals, at Frederick, Maryland, Medical Inspector at Wash¬ 
ington, and Medical Examiner at Philadelphia. From June, 1863, to November, 
1864, he was Medical Director of the Fifth Army Corps, participating in the battle 
of Gettysburg, and in nearly all the engagements of that corps in the campaign 
of 1864. After the close of the war Dr. Milhau was on duty in Georgia, in 
Kentucky, and finally on Governor’s island, New York, until 1876, when he resigned 
his commission of Surgeon. He was appointed Commissioner of Charities February 
8, 1882. 


[342] 


JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL, 

C OMMISSIONER OF STATE CHARITIES for New York county, was born 
December 16, 1843. Her parents, Francis George Shaw and Sarah Blake 
Sturgis, both originally of Boston, Massachusetts, were then living in West Roxbury. 
Her ancestors were among the most prominent families in the State, her grand¬ 
fathers being Robert Gould Shaw and Nathaniel Russell Sturgis, while her great¬ 
grandfathers were Samuel Parkman and Francis Shaw, all of them men of marked 
ability and influence in Boston. Mrs. Lowell’s educational opportunities were good. 
Five years of her youth were spent with her parents and brother and sisters in 
Europe, and subsequently she attended excellent private schools in New York and 
Boston. In 1862 she became connected with the New York Central Relief Asso¬ 
ciation of the Sanitary Commission. Her only brother, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw 
of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts (colored) Regiment, was killed at the assault on 
Fort Wagner, Charleston harbor, in July, 1863. Her marriage with Charles Russell 
Lowell occurred October 31, 1863. He was Colonel of the Second Massachusetts 
Cavalry Regiment, and was wounded October 19, 1864, during the battle of Cedar 
Creek, and died the following day. He was grandson of Rev. Charles Lowell 
and Patrick Tracy Jackson, both of Boston, Massachusetts. The heavy sorrow 
caused by this bereavement led Mrs. Lowell to sympathize more deeply with the 
suffering in all classes and to more complete devotion to their interests. In 1865 
she became identified with the workers in the New York Freedman’s Relief Asso¬ 
ciation, of which her father was President, and for three years was actively 
engaged in carrying forward the objects of that society. In 1874 she began her 
work with the New York State Charities Aid Association and for four years gave 
efficient effort in that behalf. This experience, joined to her executive ability and 
large-hearted disinterestedness, rendered it eminently appropriate that her adopted 
State should secure her continued services. In April, 1876, she was appointed 

Commissioner of the New York State Board of Charities. 


[343] 


SARAH M. CARPENTER, 

C OMMISSIONER OF STATE CHARITIES for the Second Judicial District, 
was born at Stanford, Dutchess county, New York, March 25, 1832. Her 
father, Morgan Carpenter, was of English descent, and her mother’s ancestors were 
among the early settlers of New York city, and of French Huguenot descent. 
Miss Carpenter was educated at the Oak Grove Female Seminary, at Yonkers, 
at the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Institute, and at the Ontario Female Seminary, 
at Canandaigua, where she graduated. She was appointed member of the State 
Board of Charities in January, 1880, to fill a vacancy in the Board, and was 
reappointed in March, 1881, for the full term of eight years. 


RIPLEY ROPES, 

C OMMISSIONER OF STATE CHARITIES for the county of Kings, was 
born at Salem, Massachusetts, September 30, 1820, of parents who were also 
natives of that place. His father, Benjamin Ropes, was a gallant officer in the War 
of 1812. Ripley Ropes received a common school and academic education in his 
native town. He resided there many years, serving in both Boards of the City 
Government, and the Board of Education, and managing important business interests. 
In 1863 he removed to Brooklyn, where he has since resided, doing business with 
South America, as a partner with his brother, who is the senior member in the 
house of R. W. Ropes & Company. In 1872 he entered the Brooklyn Board of 
Aldermen, serving four years. He was a member of the Board of Supervisors two 
years, and labored diligently and effectively for the honest administration of the pub¬ 
lic charities of Kings county. In 1877 Mr. Ropes was appointed Commissioner of 
Charities, to fill an unexpired term, and was reappointed in 1880 for the full term. 
Mr. Ropes is Commissioner of the Department of City Works in Brooklyn, President 
of the Brooklyn Trust Company, Trustee of the Packer Collegiate Institute, Trustee 
in a Savings Bank, and is connected with other financial and municipal organizations. 

[ 344 1 
















JOHN H. VAN ANTWERP, 

C OMMISSIONER OF STATE CHARITIES for the Third Judicial District, 
is of Holland ancestry, being a lineal descendant on the paternal side, of 
Daniel Janse Van Antwerp, born 1638, a resident of Albany in 1661, and subse¬ 
quently one of the proprietors of, and a settler on the site of Schenectady, New 
York. On the maternal side he is of English descent. Mr. Van Antwerp was 

born in Albany, October 12, 1823. At thirteen years of age he was placed in a 

store to learn mercantile business, having previously received the education at that 
time afforded by the private schools of the city. In 1847 he entered the New York 
State Bank, Albany, as Corresponding Clerk, was appointed Assistant Cashier in 
1854, and January 15, 1856, he became Cashier of the bank. He retained this 
office until 1879, when he resigned to take the Vice-Presidency of the same bank, 
which office he now holds. In 1859 he was one of the originators and corporators 
of the National Bank Note Company of New York city, and for a long time its 
President, remaining so until its recent consolidation with the American Bank Note 
Company. In 1869 he was elected President of the National Savings Bank of 
Albany, to succeed Hon. Erastus Corning, which position he still retains. 

Interested always in the progress and the embellishment of his native city, he 
was active in securing the needful legislation for the now admired Washington 
park of Albany. He was one of the original Commissioners, and held the office of 
President for twelve years, when he declined a re-election. Several other business 
enterprises have from time to time claimed his services as Manager, Director or 
T rustee. 

Political honors and emoluments he never sought nor coveted. He was, how¬ 
ever, appointed by Governor Robinson, and confirmed by the Senate, a member of 
the State Board of Charities, as the Commissioner of the Third Judicial District, 
in 1878, to fill the vacancy made by the death of Hon. John V. L. Pruyn. March 
19, 1879, he was renominated and confirmed as Commissioner for the full term 
of eight years. Although in the enjoyment of ample wealth, he continues deeply 
and actively interested in the highest welfare of his native city and State. 


44 


[ 345] 


EDWARD W. FOSTER, 

C OMMISSIONER OF STATE CHARITIES for the Fourth Judicial District, 
was born in New Haven, Connecticut, March 28, 1819. His father was a 
lawyer of high standing in New Haven, his mother was a lineal descendant of the 
Rev. James Pierrepont, one of the earliest Ministers in the colony of New Haven, 
and one of the founders of Yale College. Two descendants of James Pierrepont, 
Timothy Dwight and Theodore Woolsey, were among the most honored Presidents 
of that Institution. Edward W. Foster received a general academic education and 
subsequently engaged in a mercantile and manufacturing business. He also dealt 
largely in real estate, and still pursues that business. Mr. Foster was formerly a 
Whig and joined the Republican party on its organization in 1856. By a substan¬ 
tially unanimous vote in the town in which he resided, Mr. Foster was elected a 
member of the Board of Supervisors sixteen successive years. He was Chairman of 
the Board several times, and during the important years of the Civil War was very 
active in the discharge of the added duties imposed upon citizens and officials at 
home. He declined the nomination for Supervisor the seventeenth year. He was 
appointed by Governor Hoffman a member from the Fourth Judicial District, of 
a non-partisan commission of thirty-two members, to recommend amendments to 
the State Constitution. He was appointed by Governor Cornell a member of a 
Tax Commission of seven members, to suggest laws in regard to the taxation of 
untaxed property. In 1872 he was a member of the National Convention which 
nominated General Grant for his second term of office as President. Mr. Foster 
has been a member of the State Board of Charities since its organization, with 
the exception of one year. He received his first appointment from Governor 
Fenton, and subsequently was appointed by Governor Dix and by Governor 
Robinson. Mr. Foster resides at Potsdam, New York. 


[346] 






















JOHN C. 


DEVEREUX, 

C OMMISSIONER OF STATE CHARITIES for the Fifth Judicial District, 

and Vice-President of the Board, was born in Utica, New York, April 24, 

# 

1823. His father, Nicholas Devereux, came to this country, from Wexford, Ireland, 
in 1805, and settled in Utica in 1808, where he resided, until his death, which 
occurred in 1855. His son, the subject of this sketch, was prepared for college 

at the academy in his native city, and at the age of seventeen entered Hobart 

College, in Geneva, New York. After three years of study in that institution, 

maintaining throughout the time good standing in scholarship and character, he 

abandoned student life in order to attend to important business matters. In 1843 
he became a resident of Ellicottville, Cattaraugus county, New .York, that he 

might manage and dispose of a tract of land purchased by his father and others, 
from the Holland Land Company. He remained there until 1866, when he returned 
to his native city, where he still resides. Mr. Devereux is a Democrat and has 
always taken great interest in the political questions of the day. He has been 
a Delegate to several State Conventions, and was also a Delegate to the famous 
Charleston Convention in i860. He never, however, held any political office, 

except minor local ones, until he was appointed by Governor Dix Commissioner 
of the State Board of Charities, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of 

Hon. T. W. Dwight. In 1875 he was reappointed for a full term by Governor 

Tilden. In 1879 the Legislature appointed a Commission to visit the jails and 
penitentiaries of the State and report some plan for their improvement. The Com¬ 
mission consisted of W. H. H. Geer, Dr. Harvey Jewett and J. C. Devereux. Mr. 
Devereux was made Chairman and spent a large portion of the year in visiting 
these institutions, and in the preparation of a report on their condition and the 
changes necessary for the well-being of their inmates. This report and a bill also 
prepared by Mr. Devereux were presented for the consideration of the Legislature. 


[347] 


SAMUEL F. MILLER, 

C Commissioner of state charities for the sixth judicial District, 

' was born in Franklin May 27, 1827. His ancestry, originally English and 
Irish, for the last four or five generations have been Americans. When a boy, Mr. 
Miller attended the Delaware Literary Institute at Franklin ; he afterward entered 
Hamilton College and graduated in 1852, receiving from the same institution the 
degree of Master of Arts, in 1855. He was admitted to the bar in 1853, but 
engaged in farming and lumbering business instead of practicing his profession. 

His education, character and ability have led his fellow citizens to call upon 
him to serve them in various positions of honor and trust. In 1854 he was 
Member of Assembly; in 1856 and 1857 he was Supervisor of the town of 
Franklin. He was elected to Congress in 1862 and again in 1874. He was a 
member of the Constitutional Convention in 1867, and Collector of Internal Reve¬ 
nue from 1869 to 1873. In 1867 he was appointed Commissioner of State 
Charities which position he holds at the present time. 


OSCAR CRAIG, 

C OMMISSIONER OF STATE CHARITIES for the Seventh Judicial District, 

is a native of this State, having been born at Ridgeway, Orleans county, 

New York, November 14, 1836. His father, Joseph Craig, was born in New Hamp¬ 
shire, of Scotch ancestry, and his mother, Elizabeth Warren Herring, was a native 
of Massachusetts, and of New England ancestry. After receiving the necessary 

preparatory education, Oscar Craig entered Union College and graduated in the 
class of 1856. He received the usual honorary degree of Bachelor of Arts at his 
graduation, and that of Master of Arts in 1859. He subsequently pursued the 
study of law, was admitted to the bar and established himself in the practice of 
his profession in the city of Rochester, where he now resides. Mr. Craig is a 

Republican, and was appointed Commissioner of Charities May 11, 1880. 

[348] 



























CHARLES S. HOYT, M. D., 

S ECRETARY of the State Board of Charities, was born in Ridgefield, Fairfield 
county, Connecticut, June 8, 1822, of English and Scotch ancestry. He 

was educated in common schools and Geneva Medical College, New York. During 

the period from 1847 to 1866, except during the war, he practiced medicine in Yates 
county, New York. In early life he was a Democrat, but since 1864 he has acted 
with the Republican party. From 1847 to 1852 he was Superintendent of Public 
Schools for the town of Potter in Yates county. He represented Yates county in 
the New York Assembly during the years 1852 and 1867. He was mustered into 
the United States service as Assistant Surgeon of the One Hundred and Twenty- 
sixth New York Volunteers August 22, 1862, and promoted to be Surgeon in the 
Thirty-ninth New York Volunteers May 24, 1864. He was in all the battles of the 
Army of the Potomac from Gettysburg to Appomattox. He was Executive Officer 
of the Field Hospital, First Division, Second Army Corps, from 1864 until the close 
of the war. He was mustered out of the army August 11, 1865. Dr. Hoyt has 

prepared various official reports, those on Paupers, in 1874, being of special value. 

He was appointed Secretary of the State Board of Charities June 5, 1868. 


JAMES O. FANNING, 

A SSISTANT Secretary of the State Board of Charities, was born of American 
parentage at Gorham, Ontario county, New York, March 8, 1835. He received 
a common school and an academical education, the latter being obtained principally 
at the Franklin Academy at Prattsburg, Steuben county, New York. Mr. Fanning 
studied law in the office of Hon. Daniel Morris at Penn Yan, New York, and in the 
Law Department of the University of Albany, and was admitted to the bar in i860. 
After practicing some years, Mr. Fanning served three years as Accountant in the 
Treasury Department at Washington, and the same period as Financial and Engross¬ 
ing Clerk of the State Assembly. He has been Assistant Secretary eight years. 

[349J 




STATE COMMISSIONER IN LUNACY. 

^|T HE office of State Commissioner in Lunacy was created in 1873 (Laws of 
1873, chapter 571, sections 13 and 14) and was designed to afford to the State 
Board of Charities, of which the Commissioner was to be an ex-officio member 
and to which he was to report, an efficient agency in the supervision of the care 
of the insane; but by the provisions of an act passed in 1874 the State Com¬ 
missioner in Lunacy was rendered an independent officer of the State Government. 
Under the provisions of these statutes and of acts passed in 1876 and 1878 it is 
the duty of the State Commissioner in Lunacy, who must be an experienced and 
competent physician, to inquire into the condition of the insane and idiotic in the 
State, and into the management and conduct of the asylums, public and private, 
for their care and treatment, and to report with regard thereto annually to the 
Legislature. If he has reason to believe that any person is wrongfully deprived 
of his liberty, or is cruelly, negligently or improperly treated, he is to take testi¬ 
mony with regard thereto, for which purpose he is authorized to issue compulsory 
process; and the evidence taken upon said investigation is to be submitted to a 
Justice of the Supreme Court, who shall thereupon grant the necessary relief. The 
State Commissioner in Lunacy, if he finds that inadequate provision exists in any 
institution for the proper care of the insane, is authorized to issue an order requir¬ 
ing its officers to modify such treatment, or to apply such remedy as he may 
direct; and if the order is not complied with he may apply to the Supreme Court 
for its enforcement. In case of any investigation, it is also his duty to notify 
the District Attorney of the county in which any institution is located to appear 
in behalf of the People to examine all witnesses. The officers of all institutions 
are required to provide him with full information with regard to their affairs; and 
on or before the 15th of November in each year it is the duty of the Superintend¬ 
ents or Keepers of Poor-houses to report to him the number of insane, idiots and 
epileptics in their respective institutions. The State Commissioner in Lunacy is also 
required to report to the Legislature the results of the treatment of the insane in 
other States and countries. His salary is $4,000, and he holds office for a term of 
five years. 


[350] 























JOHN ORDRONAUX, M. D., 


ATELY State Commissioner in 
3, 1827. He was appointed 
served until June, 1874. 


Lunacy, was born in New York city August 
State Commissioner in Lunacy in 1873, and 


STEPHEN SMITH, M. D., 

S TATE COMMISSIONER IN LUNACY, is a native of Onondaga county, 
New York, and son of the Hon. Lewis Smith, for several years Member of 
Assembly from that county. His general education was obtained in the common 
schools and at the Homer Academy, Cortland county. He graduated at the Col¬ 
lege of Physicians and Surgeons of New York in 1851, and received the honorary 
degree of Master of Arts from Brown University in 1878. Dr. Smith is one of 
the founders of the Bellevue Hospital Medical College in i860, in which he held 
the Professorship of Anatomy for ten years. He was then appointed Professor of 
Clinical Surgery in the Medical Department of the University of the City of New 
York, which position he fills at the present time. He was appointed one of the 
Health Commissioners on the Metropolitan Board of Health of New York city by 
Governor Fenton in 1868, and was reappointed, on the adoption of the new charter, 
by the Mayor, A. Oakey Hall, and again by Mayor Havemeyer. Dr. Smith is also 
the founder of the American Public Health Association, of which he was President 
four consecutive terms. He took an active part in establishing the National Board 
of Health, and was appointed a member by President Hayes April 1, 1879. He 
was appointed a member of the State Board of Charities by Governor Cornell in 
June, 1881, and State Commissioner in Lunacy in May, 1882. Dr. Smith is Surgeon 
to Bellevue Hospital and St. Vincent’s Hospital, New York. He has been Editor 

of the leading medical periodicals of New York, and is the author of several 
professional works. He is a member of the principal medical associations of the 

4 

State and of the United States, and an honorary member of foreign societies. 

[351J 


NEW YORK STATE LUNATIC ASYLUM. 


By M. M. BAGG, M. D. 


REVIOUS to the year 1843, the only asylums in the State of New York 
for the care and treatment of the insane were the Bloomingdale Asylum and 
a department of the New York Hospital. The insane poor were for the most 
part confined in the county houses or at home, or else were suffered to go at 
large. The necessity for more ample provision for the treatment of this unfor¬ 
tunate class, and especially of those of them who were indigent, was first brought 
before the attention of the Legislature in 1830. After repeated recommendations 
from successive Governors, reports from special legislative committees, a petition 
from the State Medical Society and considerable public agitation, an act to authorize 
the establishment of the New York State Lunatic Asylum was passed March 30, 
1836. The following year about one hundred and thirty acres of land, situated 
on an elevated plain upon the western border of the city of Utica, were pro¬ 
cured, and the work of erection was begun by Commissioners appointed for the 
purpose, and in accordance with a plan which was designed to provide for the 
accommodation of one thousand patients. Only one of the proposed buildings 
was, however, erected. It is of gray limestone, five hundred and fifty feet in 
length, three stories high, except the central portion, which has an additional story, 
and is of the Doric order of architecture. Two brick additions, at right angles 
to the principal building and connected in the rear by a similar structure, were 
subsequently added. Nicholas Devereux, Jacob Sutherland, Charles A. Mann, Alfred 
Munson, Charles B. Coventry, Abraham V. Williams, Thomas H. Hubbard, T. 
Romeyn Beck and David Buel were, in 1842, created Managers of the institution; 
they appointed Dr. Amariah Brigham Superintendent, Edmund A. Wetmore, Treas¬ 
urer, and other resident officers. On the 16th of January, 1843, the institution 
was opened for the admission of patients, and within the year two hundred and 
seventy-six were received. The building was not, however, yet complete, and 
required a further outlay for additional furnaces, out-buildings, the introduction of 

water, etc. In the annual report of 1846 the building is thus described: 

[352] 



NEW YORK STATE LUNATIC ASYLUM, UTICA. 

















NEW YORK STATE LUNATIC ASYLUM. 


353 


“ The whole structure, separate from that part of the center building assigned 
for offices, parlors and accommodations for the resident officers and those engaged 
in the domestic employments of the asylum, consists of three hundred and eighty 
single rooms for patients, and twenty-four for their attendants; twenty associate 
dormitories of different sizes, sixteen parlors or day-rooms, and eight inclosed 
verandas or balconies; twelve rooms for dining, twenty-four for bathing, as many 
more for clothes, and the same number for water-closets; two large hospital-rooms 
for the sick, with bed-rooms adjoining for nurses; a chapel that will accommodate 
five hundred persons; various shops for shoemakers, tailors, cabinet-makers, etc. ; a 
wash-room, an ironing and drying-room, three kitchens, numerous store-rooms, a 
bakery and plumbing-shop; all connected and capable of being visited without going 
out of doors.” 

Entering upon the Superintendency after considerable previous study of insanity, 
upon which subject he had written a much-esteemed volume, and after a similar 
charge at Hartford, Connecticut, Dr. Brigham devoted his entire energies to the 
work of organizing and systematizing every part of the establishment, giving to 
it an impress which in a large degree still remains. In his reports and in all 
his writings and labors he did much to enlighten the public as well as the medical 
profession upon the subject of insanity, its causation, its prevention and its treat¬ 
ment. In his investigations he was persevering and thorough, making and recording 
numerous experiments and observations, testing various newly-proposed remedies 
deemed worthy of trial, and extending his researches in every direction which seemed 
to him to give promise of useful results. Recognizing both labor and amusement 
as important measures of cure, he made use of both. Some of his patients he 
encouraged to work on the farm, others were employed in various ways within 
doors, while games of many kinds, as well as theatrical shows, were provided, to 
occupy the mind and divert it from its usual disordered current. School and 
literary exercises were established, and by means of these and of books, periodicals 
and newspapers, additional efforts were made both to cultivate and to restore to a 
healthy condition the unsettled mind and body. He established the American 

4 

Journal of Insanity, which was conducted by the Superintendent and assistants, 
and designed to serve as a medium of communication and instruction between 
alienists elsewhere. This quarterly journal, the first of its kind in the civilized 
world, has continued to be published at the asylum from that time to the present, 
and is the accredited organ of all students of mental disease. Dr. Brigham con¬ 
tinued in charge until his death, which occurred September 8, 1849, an d was 
severely felt. He was succeeded in November by Dr. N. D. Benedict, of 
Blockley Hospital, Philadelphia, whose ill-health required his resignation, in June, 
1854. His resignation was followed on the 19th of July by the unanimous appoint¬ 
ment of Dr. John P. Gray, the first Assistant Physician, who had been acting as 

45 


354 


NEW YORK STATE LUNATIC ASYLUM. 


Superintendent while Dr. Benedict was away a year on leave of absence with a 
view to the recovery of his health. 

When the asylum was built neither the Commissioners who planned it nor 
the professional gentlemen they consulted, seemed to realize the importance of 
thorough ventilation, or the numerous and active sources that contribute to vitiate 
the atmosphere in a hospital for the insane, especially in those parts of it appro¬ 
priated to patients of filthy habits and to cases of acute mania. After some years’ 
experience, measures to secure a more perfect system of ventilation, as well as of 
warming the building, being found necessary, a plan was at length formed which 
involved extensive alterations of the present edifices and the erection of a new build¬ 
ing in the rear; but these improvements were not completed for several years. The 
contrivance to secure good ventilation was first put in operation on the women’s 
side of the house. It consisted of a centrifugal fan driven by steam power, which 
forced currents of air along a series of steam-pipe chambers extending throughout 
the basement and thence into flues opening into the wards. The corridor-walls on 
the side next the rooms were cut away, through half their thickness, from attic to 
basement, and channels constructed therein for conveying the air from the chambers 
in the basement into every part of the building, and from the wards and rooms 
into the attic and thence through ridge ventilation into the open air. This system 
secures the most complete warming and ventilation. The superiority of this system 
of forced ventilation, over one dependent upon the spontaneous action of warm 
currents, was made strikingly apparent by the relative amount of disease which 
prevailed during a year on the two sides of the house, there being on the female 
side an almost entire immunity from those complaints which are incident to atmos¬ 
pheric impurity. The success of this experiment, which was found, moreover, to 
be compatible with the maintenance of a temperature of seventy degrees when the 
thermometer outside was at zero, or twenty-five degrees below, showed the desir¬ 
ableness of a similar change throughout the building. And this was commenced in 
1855 and carried gradually to completion. 

On the 14th of July, 1857, the asylum was visited by a disastrous fire, 
which, breaking out near the cupola of the front central building, was not arrested 
until it had consumed the whole interior of this central portion. No injury was 
done to any of the household, although two of the citizens of Utica lost their 
lives from the fall of a ceiling, while they were endeavoring to save articles of 
furniture. Four days later another fire, the incendiary being thereby discovered, 
destroyed the barn attached to the institution. Among the means adopted to 
prevent a recurrence of such calamities were a large steam fire-pump, with an 
abundant supply of hose to reach any part of the building; an increase of tankage 
and twenty-four one and a quarter-inch stand-pipes from the main steam-pipe, passing 


NEW YORK STATE LUNATIC ASYLUM. 


355 


through the basement, by means of which any part of the building or the entire 
house can be filled with steam. These means have since been greatly increased 
and the defense against fire made as complete as possible. 

The institution has from time to time, in consequence of the advance in medical 
and psychological science, been modified and enlarged in its facilities for treatment. 
Among the additions and alterations may be named: a one-story ward on each 
side for the reception of recent acute cases; glass verandas or exaggerated bay- 
windows at the ends of eight of the twenty-four wards; a neat hard-wood flooring 
in most of the wards; a commodious building for shops in the rear of the struc¬ 
tures occupied by patients, the cross-wing once devoted to the former purpose 
being converted into wards; an enlargement and full stocking of the green-house; 
greatly improved facilities in the washing and laundry departments, as well as in 
other outside structures pertaining to the institution. Its library has grown to 
over four thousand volumes; new and valuable instruments have been brought into 
requisition ; its corps of assistants has been increased; fuller and more compre¬ 
hensive records are kept of the features of every case, and more scientific exami¬ 
nations made of the pathology of the fatal ones. A brief extract from the pen 
of Dr. Bucknill, Lord Chancellor’s Visitor in Lunacy, and many years Superin¬ 
tendent of one of the largest institutions in England, well known also as the 
former Editor of the Journal of Mental Science , as well as an author in Psycho¬ 
logical Medicine, shows the estimate which such competent authority places upon 
the asylum. We quote from his notes published in the London Lancet in 1876: 

“The lunatic asylum for the State of New York, where I spent some instructive 
and agreeable days, is better known to the outside world than any other similar 
institution in the country. This, no doubt, is due, to some extent, to its being 
the asylum of the Empire State, but to a far greater degree to the genius and 
enterprise of Dr. John P. Gray, its well-known Superintendent, who has for many 
years made it a brilliant school of psychology and of mental pathology. Dr. Gray 
and his assistant physicians edit and publish the American Journal of Insanity , an 
enterprise which has been of the highest value in extending the knowledge of 
our science. One of his assistants, Dr. Theodore Deecke, devotes his time exclu¬ 
sively to pathological investigations, and is engaged at the present time in pro¬ 
ducing photographs of cerebral and spinal sections, of wonderful size and accuracy. 
The positive and relative nature of drugs in the treatment of insanity is another 
subject which is systematically investigated at Utica, and, altogether, the utilization 
of the material for scientific inquiry, which the institution affords, presents a remark¬ 
able similarity to the great school of mental science which has been founded in 
Yorkshire by Dr. Crichton Browne.” 

He commends the large, cheerful, well-furnished and decorated wards ; the origi¬ 
nal building with its imposing Doric portico; the glazed rooms that terminate the 


356 


NEW YORK STATE LUNATIC ASYLUM. 


newer wards, which are light and attractive, and form most comfortable and agree¬ 
able lounging or working-rooms; the capital amateur theatricals in which the actors 
are patients and attendants; and the accommodations in general, which he says 
are “ excellent; ” and he concludes as follows : 

“If it were possible for us to send our best sample of a large asylum, which 
has done good work for many years, to the Centenary Exhibition, I doubt whether 
we could very much crow over the one which the Americans might bring to com¬ 
pete with us from Utica.” 

Since the above date the institution has continued its course of progress both 
in its scientific and medical work, maintaining a front rank with the best hospitals 
for the insane in this country or any other. The arrangements finally completed 
for heating, ventilation and drainage were so thorough and successful that recently 
the British Government, through the Department of State, applied for a report on 
the subject, which was furnished by Dr. Gray, the Superintendent, with illustrative 
drawings. 

The State Board of Health, in its report to the Governor, made December, 
1880, after a careful investigation of the hygienic arrangements of the public insti¬ 
tutions of the State, presents the Utica Asylum as a representative hospital in its 
successful arrangements for warming, ventilation, sewage and water-supply. (Assembly 
Document No. 29, January 20, 1881.) 

Since the opening of the asylum, in January, 1843, fourteen thousand four 
hundred and fifty-one cases have been admitted up to the close of the fiscal year 
ending September 30, 1881. Of these, five thousand two hundred and seventy 
have been discharged recovered; two thousand and ninety-four improved; four 
thousand three hundred and ninety-nine unimproved; one thousand eight hundred 
and twenty-four have died, and two hundred and thirty-eight were not insane. 
This left six hundred and twenty-six patients under treatment at the close of the 
year. 


Board of Managers: Hon. Samuel Campbell, S. O. Vanderpoel, M. D., Theodore 
Pomeroy, General James McQuade, Joseph R. Swan, Hon. Lewis Lawrence, Alfred 
C. Coxe, G. A. Dayton, M. D., P. V. Rogers. 

Resident Officers: John P. Gray, M. D., LL. D., Superintendent and Physician ; 
Edward N. Brush, M. D., First Assistant Physician; Selwyn A. Russell, M. D., 
Second Assistant Physician; Eli E. Josselyn, M. D., Third Assistant Physician ; 
G. Alder Blumer, M. D., Fourth Assistant Physician; Theodore Deecke, Special 
Pathologist . 






I 





SAMUEL CAMPBELL, 

~f^)RESIDENT of the Board of Trustees of the State Lunatic Asylum at Utica, 
is a resident of the village of New York Mills, Oneida county, New York. 
He was born in Tarbolton, Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1809, and educated in the superior 
schools of his native land. Coming to America in 1831 he began his life in the 
land of his adoption as a working man in the manufactory of Marshall & Wolcott 
at New York Mills. He proved a good workman, made many improvements in 
machinery and was rapidly promoted until, in 1847, he became a partner in the 
firm. He has conducted his constantly increasing business with signal success, and 
is one of the largest manufacturers in the country. Mr. Campbell is also largely 
interested in agricultural pursuits. He owns a large farm, giving his attention to 
fine breeds of cattle. His herd of Ayrshires is considered the best in the country, 
and his various breeds of stock have often carried off the first prizes at State and 
county fairs. Mr. Campbell was formerly a Whig in politics, afterward always a 
Republican. He was a member of the Oneida County Board of Supervisors from 

Whitestown, and a member of the War Committee of Oneida county during the 
War of the Rebellion, and by his unremitting labors and generous benefactions 
proved his devotion to his country. He was a delegate to the Convention at 
Baltimore that nominated Mr. Lincoln for his second term. He was elected State 
Senator from Oneida county in the fall of 1865, and re-elected to the Senate of 
1868-69. 


JOHN P. GRAY, M. D., LL. D., 

M EDICAL SUPERINTENDENT of the State Asylum for the Insane at 
Utica, was born of American parentage at Halfmoon, Center county, Penn¬ 
sylvania, August 6, 1825. He received his education in the common schools, at 
the Bellefonte Academy, and at Dickinson College. In 1848 he graduated in 
medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and was immediately afterward appointed 

[357] 


353 


JOHN P. GRAY, 


one of the resident physicians of the Philadelphia Hospital. He was appointed 
Third Assistant Physician in the State Lunatic Asylum at Utica in 1851, Second 
Assistant in 1852, First Assistant and Acting Superintendent in 1853. He was 
appointed Medical Superintendent of the projected Michigan State Asylum, and 
originated the plans of the asylum at Kalamazoo. He resigned this position in 
1854, when he was appointed to his present position as Medical Superintendent of 
the Utica asylum. In the same year he succeeded Doctor T. R. Beck as Editor-in- 
Chief of the American Journal of Insanity. During his long public service he has 
been closely identified with the general medical profession, teaching that practice 
in insanity, as a disease, should not be limited to specialists. Doctor Gray, is a 
permanent member and ex-President of the Medical Society of the State of New 
York, member and ex-President of the Oneida County Medical Society, and member 
and ex-President of the American Association of Medical Editors. He is a perma¬ 
nent member of the American Association of Medical Superintendents of Hospitals 
for the Insane; also a permanent member of the American Medical Association, 
and one of the Judicial Council of that body. He has read papers on medical 
subjects and relating to insanity before all these bodies. He has been a warm 
advocate for liberal provision for the insane. He has been appointed by the Gov¬ 
ernor of the State a commissioner for establishing two of the new State asylums — 
Willard and Buffalo; frequently appointed by State Governors and Supreme Court 
Judges a commissioner to examine and report in cases of alleged insanity in crimi¬ 
nals; and also by the President of the United States and Secretary of War to 
render similar service for the General Government. He was President of the 
Psychological Section of the International Medical Congress in Philadelphia in 
1876, and delivered the address before the Congress on Mental Hygiene. He 
is Professor of Psychological Medicine and Jurisprudence in the Bellevue Hospital 
Medical College and in the Albany Medical College. He is an honorary member 
of the British Psychological Association, of the Freniatrical Society of Italy, of 
the Psychological Society of Paris, of the American Archaeological Society, and of 
various other societies and associations. He received the honorary degree of Master 
of Arts from Dickinson College, and of Doctor of Laws from Hamilton College. 




WILLARD ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE. 



































WILLARD ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE. 


By JOHN B. CHAPIN, M. D., Superintendent. 


^|j HIS asylum, located at Willard, on the Seneca lake, Seneca county, New York, 
vX' was established by an act of the Legislature, passed in 1865, providing “for 
the chronic insane and for the better care of the insane poor.” It constitutes a 
part of the public system provided by the State for the care and treatment of 

the insane, which began with the opening of the State Lunatic Asylum at Utica 
in 1843. In 1843 Miss D. L. Dix made a personal inspection of the several county 
alms-houses of the State, and presented a memorial to the Legislature asking for 

the erection of an asylum which should be open to that class of the insane which 

had hitherto found a final refuge in such ill-appointed buildings. A convention of 

Superintendents of the Poor presented to the Legislature of 1855 a petition for a 

similar object. During the summer of 1856 a select committee of the Senate made 

a personal and official examination of the asylums and county alms-houses and 
made a report to the Legislature in 1857, with recommendations. Each of the 

several reports concurred as to the neglected condition of the insane in the various 
alms-houses. It was found to be a constant occurrence that recent and curable 
cases, as well as cases discharged from the State Lunatic Asylum, were received 
into the county poor-houses, where they were subjected to neglect from want of 
proper medical and other attendance; to prolonged seclusion in rooms or cells, 
many of which were dark, and in basements, as well as to the humiliating restraint 
of chains and irons. No result of a practical nature followed either of these 

movements. 

In 1864 the condition of the insane poor confined in poor-houses was presented 
to the Legislature in a resolution adopted by the State Medical Society, which led 
to the passage of an act authorizing the Secretary of the State Medical Society to 
institute an examination of the insane confined in those places. Dr. Sylvester 
D. Willard, then acting as Secretary of the Society, entered upon this work, and 
presented a report to the Legislature of 1865, which received the special commen¬ 
dation of Governor Fenton. Dr. Willard died April 2, 1865. The Legislature 

[ 359] 


360 


WILLARD ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE. 


subsequently gave effect to the recommendations of Dr. Willard’s report, and estab¬ 
lished the asylum which now bears his name. 

The asylum was opened for patients October 13, 1869. The present number 
in the asylum is one thousand seven hundred and seventy-one. The whole number 
admitted since the opening of the institution is two thousand nine hundred and 
thirty-three. The buildings and premises comprise the main asylum structure; four 
groups of detached blocks, each group consisting of five buildings; the former State 
Agricultural College building and seven hundred and ninety-two acres of land. The 
disturbed and helpless are located in the main asylum, and the quiet and harmless 
in the detached wards or blocks. The total amount appropriated for land, buildings, 
furniture, water-works, etc., to the present time is $1,401,428. 

The asylum receives patients only on the order of the county Superintendent 
of the Poor and the certificates of two physicians. The class of patients received 
are the chronic insane discharged from other State asylums not recovered, from 
the county poor-houses, and from homes. 

The general plan and scope of the asylum has several distinctive features, which 
have resulted in the reduction of the cost of construction and support, among 
which are a great amount of personal liberty and diversity of occupation incident to 
the cultivation of a large farm ; and the segregation or separation of patients. The 
Legislature makes an annual appropriation for the salaries of the resident officers. 
The support of each patient is a charge upon the county where the patient resides. 
The cost of support of a patient in the asylum for 1881 will average $150.80. 
The asylum is managed by a Board of Trustees, and is officially visited by the 
State Board of Charities and the State Commissioner in Lunacy. 

Board of Trustees: Hon. S. G. Hadley, Waterloo; General George J. Magee, 
Watkins; W. A. Swaby, M. D., Seneca Falls; George W. Jones, Ovid; Hon. D. 
A. Ogden, Penn Yan; J. D. F. Slee, Elmira; S. R. Welles, M. D., Waterloo; Hon. 
F. O. Mason, Geneva. 

Officers of the Board: Hon. S. G. Hadley, President; S. R. Welles, M. D., 
Secretary; Hon. James B. Thomas, Treasurer. 

Resident Officers: John B. Chapin, M. D., Superintendent; James C. Carson, 
M. D., P. M. Wise, M. D., Alexander Nellis, Jr., M. D., H. G. Hopkins, M. D., 
Henry E. Allison, M. D., William E. Sylvester, M. D., and E. W. Lamoreaux, 
Assistant Physicians; Morris J. Gilbert, Steward; Elizabeth Bonner, Matron. 













STERLING G. HADLEY, 

O F Waterloo, President of the Board of Trustees of the Willard Asylum for 
the Insane, was born, of English ancestry, in Goshen, Litchfield county, Con¬ 
necticut, August 26, 1812. Mr. Hadley graduated at Union College in the class 
of 1836. He read law at Avon, Livingston county, New York, with George 
Hosmer, and also with Birdsall & Clark at Waterloo, New York. He was admitted 
to the bar as Attorney at Law in 1839, an d as Counselor in 1842, and has since 
practiced his profession. Until 1861 Mr. Hadley was a Democrat, but since that 
time has belonged to the Republican party. He was Member of Assembly in 
1853, County Judge of Seneca county in 1856, Chairman of the Seneca County War 
Committee in 1861, 1862 and 1863, member of the Constitutional Convention of 
1867 and 1868, and State Assessor from 1873 t0 1880. He has been Register in 
Bankruptcy since the passage of the Bankrupt Act. He has been a Trustee of the 
Willard Asylum for the Insane since 1867, and President of the Board since 1872. 


JOHN B. CHAPIN, M. D., 

A /TEDICAL SUPERINTENDENT of the Willard Asylum for the Insane, is a 
son of William Chapin, Principal of the Pennsylvania Institution for the Blind. 
He was born in New York city December 4, 1829, graduated at Williams College in 
1850, studied medicine in the New York Hospital, and received the degree of Doctor 
of Medicine from Jefferson Medical College in 1853. He was Resident Physician 
of the New York Hospital for one year, and then appointed in 1854 Assistant 
Physician of the State Lunatic Asylum at Utica. In 1858 he was made Superin¬ 
tendent of the Missouri Institution for the Blind, and after aiding in the organiza¬ 
tion of Brigham Hall , at Canandaigua, as a hospital for the insane, he became its 
Resident Physician. In 1865 he was appointed by Governor Fenton one of the Com¬ 
missioners to erect the Willard Asylum for the Insane, and on its partial completion 
in 1869 he was elected its Medical Superintendent, and has since held the position. 

46 [ 361 ] 


HUDSON RIVER STATE HOSPITAL. 


By J. M. CLEAVELAND, M. D., Superintendent. 


^|\N the 9th of January, 1867, the Commissioners appointed by the Governor, 
v_/ under chapter 666, Laws of 1866, to locate the Hudson River Hospital, 
reported that they had received, by gift, from the citizens of Dutchess county, a 
suitable site near the city of Poughkeepsie and fronting upon the Hudson river. 
In a little more than two months after this report by the Commissioners, the act 
to establish the hospital was passed, and a Board of Managers appointed. 

The plans, elevations, specifications and estimates were submitted to the State 
officers, as by law required, and received their approval August 9, 1867. The 
hospital was planned to accommodate about two hundred patients of each sex, the 
wards for men constituting the entire wing to the south, and the wards for women 
the entire wing to the north of the central building, which is devoted to the various 
departments of general management. The chapel is placed between the wings and 
in the rear of the central building, so that patients of one sex are prevented from 
looking into the wards or yards of patients of the other sex. The kitchen and 
general service department are located in the rear of the chapel. The department 
for each sex consists of four wards on the principal floor, four wards on the 
second floor, one ward on the third floor, and an infirmary on the third floor 
separated entirely from the rest of the wards. Each ward has its staircase on the 
front line of the building, and also a staircase communicating with an airing-court 
in the rear line of the building. The wards for the more excitable patients are 
farthest removed from the central building, and have bed-rooms only on one side 
of the corridors. For the sake of economy this plan is not followed throughout, 
bed-rooms being placed on both sides of the corridors in the wards for quiet 
patients. Every ward, in addition to its dormitories, is provided with a living- 
room of large dimensions, having windows on three sides of it ; a dining-room, 
with pantry attached, communicating by lifts with the basement corridor, connecting 
with the service department; a lavatory; a room in which a patient may be 

thoroughly washed from head to foot, either in a sitting or standing posture; a 

[ 362 ] 



HUDSON RIVER STATE HOSPITAL, POUGHKEEPSIE 



























HUDSON RIVER STATE HOSPITAL. 


363 

bath-room, with the bath placed in the center of the apartment; a room containing 
water-closets and urinals; a linen and clothes-room, and a soiled-linen shaft. 

Over the building used for kitchen offices is an amusement-room, which can 
be approached under cover from each wing. Attached to the convalescent wards 
on the men’s side are a library, writing-room and billiard-room, and in a corre¬ 
sponding position on the women’s side, a library, a sewing-room and a gymnasium 
The kitchen, laundry and general service department are in detached buildings. In 
each wing a cold-air shaft, running under the principal floor and connected with 
the fan-room, is arranged to carry fresh air by means of separate flues to every 
room in every ward, and in winter steam-heat is applied on the basement-level at 
the points of junction at which the vertical flues branch from the general hori¬ 
zontal air-shaft. Ventilating flues are provided for the different apartments, and 
terminate in chimneys or under ridge-roof openings. The principal floor of the 
central building contains offices for medical and administrative purposes, while the 
upper stories furnish apartments for the officers and their families. 

Three sections of the hospital were opened for the admission of patients on 
the 18th of October, 1871, and from that date to October 1, 1881, sixteen hun¬ 
dred and seventy-one cases of insanity had been committed to the institution, and 
thirteen hundred and ninety-eight had been discharged, removed or died. 

Board of Managers: Cornelius R. Agnew, New York city; Joseph Howland, 
Matteawan; Charles Wheaton, Poughkeepsie; Charles F. Brown, Newburgh; Amasa 
J. Parker, Jr.,* Albany; Jacob B. Carpenter, Little Rest; John I. Platt, Poughkeepsie; 
Willard H. Mase, Matteawan; Charles H. Stott Stottville. 

Resident Officers: J. M. Cleaveland, Medical Superintendent; A. O. Kellogg, 
First Assistant Physician; J. L. Corning, Jr., Second Assistant Physician; Robert 
Roberts, Steward. 


JOSEPH M. CLEAVELAND, M. D„ 

M EDICAL SUPERINTENDENT of the Hudson River State Hospital at 
Poughkeepsie, New York, graduated at the College of New Jersey in 1846, 
and from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York city, in 1850, and 
was appointed to his present position in March, 1867. 


* Hon. Amasa J. Parker, President of the Board of Trustees of the Hudson River State Hospital, is also Member of 
Assembly from the Third Assembly District of Albany county, and his biography will be found on page 354 of the second 
volume of The Public Service of the State of New York. 



BUFFALO STATE ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE. 


By JUDSON B. ANDREWS, M. D., Superintendent. 


2 J[N 1865 a bill was introduced in the Legislature of the State of New York, 
dJ*. and reported favorably, providing for the establishment of two asylums to be 
located, respectively, in the eastern and western portion of the State. Although 
delayed for a season, the policy, thus inaugurated, to provide for all of the insane, 
was subsequently carried out by the establishment in 1867 of the Hudson River 
Hospital for the Insane, located at Poughkeepsie, and still later of the Buffalo 
State Asylum for the Insane, at Buffalo. On the 13th of March, 1869, the Legis¬ 
lature passed an act authorizing the Governor to appoint five* commissioners to 
select a suitable site in the Eighth Judicial District on which to erect an asylum 
for the insane. After examining various sites offered, the commissioners selected 
the one at Buffalo as the best for the interests of the State, for the welfare of 
the insane and the success of the institution. The city of Buffalo donated the 
land and guaranteed the free and perpetual right to use the water from the city 
water-works for all the purposes of the asylum without compensation. A report 
of the action of the commissioners, made to the Legislature, was approved, and 
in April, 1870, the act to establish the asylum in the city of Buffalo was passed. 
The site, containing two hundred and three acres of rolling land, is situated 
adjoining the park at a distance of about three miles north from the business 
center of the city. It has a frontage on Forest avenue of about three thousand 
feet, and is bounded on the rear by the Scajaquada creek, a tributary of the 
Niagara river. The grounds in front of the buildings are graded and laid 
out in accordance with plans furnished by Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted, the well- 
known landscape architect. The ground plan of the buildings, furnished by Dr. 
John P. Gray, Superintendent of the State Lunatic Asylum at Utica, was adopted 
August 25, 1870. The elevations and working plans were made by Messrs. Gambrill 
& Richardson, architects, of New York city. The style of architecture is of the 


*The commissioners were Dr. John P. Gray of Utica, Dr. James P. White of Buffalo, Dr. Milan Baker of Warsaw, 
Dr. Thomas D. Strong of Westfield, and Dr. William B. Gould of Lockport. 


[364] 



BUFFALO STATE ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE. 










































BUFFALO STATE ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE. 


365 


Elizabethan order. The center building is surmounted by two elevated towers, 
from which is gained an extensive view of the city and surroundings, including 
the Niagara river and Lake Erie. The plans provide for a central or administra¬ 
tion building of four stories, located about four hundred feet north of the avenue. 
The first story contains offices for administrative purposes, the second is the resi¬ 
dence of the Superintendent’s family, the third is occupied by the other officers, and 
the fourth contains the chapel. Upon either side of the central building there are 
five other buildings, containing in all eleven wards for patients of each sex. Of 
these, the first and second are of three stories, the third and fourth of two, and 
the fifth and last, for the most disturbed class, of one story only. These buildings 
are connected by fire-proof corridors, thirty feet in length, built on an arc of a 
circle with the concavity to the front. These serve as a means of communication 
between the wards, and at the same time separate them from each other. They 
also lessen the danger of destruction of the institution by fire, afford more sunlight 
upon all parts of the building, and facilitate the circulation of air around and 

between the buildings. By this mode of connecting, by corridors, the buildings 
arranged in echelon, the view from the ends of the wards is entirely unob¬ 
structed. The extreme end of the last building is about one thousand two hundred 

feet, and falls back three hundred feet, from the rear of the center. The ward 

corridors are about two hundred feet in length, fourteen feet in width, with ceilings 
of sixteen feet in height on the first and fourteen feet on the upper floors. The 
rooms are placed on one side only of the ward corridors. A wing is projected to 
the rear of each ward, which has rooms on both sides of a central hall. This rear 
extension can be shut off from the front or main corridor. At the end of the 

ward farthest from the center building, in a rear projection near the connecting 
corridors, are located the general service rooms, as bathing, clothing, wash-rooms, 

closets, etc. The ward kitchen is entirely separated from the ward buildings. The 
wards are ventilated by independent flues starting from near the base-board in each 
of the rooms and dormitories and extending to the attic, from which the air passes 
out through the ridge of the roof. Fresh air is forced into the building by the 
fan at the engine-house. This passes through an under-ground tunnel into the air- 
chamber in the basement; whence, after passing over the cast-iron radiators heated 
by steam and located at the starting point of the air flues, it enters the ward 
at a point near the ceiling. The water supply is furnished from the city mains, 

and is ample. The buildings are lighted by gas obtained from the city works. 

The erection of the buildings was begun soon after the adoption of the plan 
in 1870, and the corner-stone was laid September 18, 1872, with appropriate Masonic 
ceremonies. The center and two of the ward buildings are of Medina sandstone; 
the remaining three wards are built of brick. The construction was continued till 


366 


BUFFALO STATE ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE. 


the fall of 1880, when the central building and the wards on one side were com¬ 
pleted for occupancy, and on the 15th of November, 1880, the institution was 
officially opened for the reception of patients of both sexes. As arranged, the six 
wards nearest the administration building are devoted to the use of women, and 
the five more remote are set apart for the men. They will accommodate three 
hundred patients, and there are at present two hundred and eighty-three inmates. 
The asylum is organized in accordance with the provisions of chapter 446, Laws of 
1874. This provides for a Board of Managers, ten in number, who are appointed 
by the Governor with the consent of the Senate. 

Board of Managers: Dr. John P. Gray, Utica; Dr. William P. Gould, Lock- 
port; Hon. Lorenzo Morris, Fredonia; Hon. Augustus Frank, Warsaw; George R. 
Potter, John M. Hutchinson, Delavan F. Clark, Dr. John B. Hill, Francis H. Root, 
Buffalo; Dr. F. P. Brewer, Westfield. 

Officers of the Board: Francis H. Root, President; William F. Rogers, Secretary. 

Officers of the asylum: Judson B. Andrews, M. D., Superintendent; William D. 
Granger, M. D., First Assistant Physician; Floyd S. Crego, M. D., Second Assistant 
Physician; Levi M. Beam, Steward; William F. Rogers, Treaszirer. 

FRANCIS H. ROOT, 

O F Buffalo, President of the Board of Managers of the Buffalo State Asylum 
for the Insane, was born, of New England parentage, in the town of New 
Berlin, Chenango county, New York, May 30, 1815. Educated in the village 
common school and at a county academy, Mr. Root has been, since 1835, a res i* 
dent of the city of Buffalo, and since 1836 has been actively engaged in business 

in that city. He was for many years occupied in the manufacture of stoves and 

other castings, under the firm name of Jewett & Root. He is at present engaged 
in the business of manufacturing hemlock sole leather under the firm name of Root 
& Keating. Mr. Root has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Buffalo 
Normal School since its organization and for the last three years has been President 
of the Board. He has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Syracuse 
University since its organization, and President of the Board the last two years. 

He has been a Director of the Manufacturers and Traders’ Bank of Buffalo the 

last eighteen years, and of the Bank of Buffalo since its organization. He has 
been a Trustee of the Buffalo Savings Bank the past ten years, and of the Citizens’ 
Gas Company of Buffalo the last two years. All of these official positions Mr. 
Root still retains. 











JUDSON B. ANDREWS, M. D., 


S UPERINTENDENT of the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane, was born in 
North Haven, Connecticut, April 25, 1834, of American parents, his ancestors 
being among the earliest settlers of New Haven colony. His preparatory education 
was received at the Hopkins Grammar School, of New Haven, from which he entered 
Yale College, in the class of 1855, and was graduated in course. The degree of 
Master of Arts was conferred in 1858. After graduation he taught school, attended 
lectures at the Jefferson Medical College, of Philadelphia, till the fall of 1861, when 
he entered the military service of the United States as Captain in the Seventy- 
seventh New York Volunteer Regiment, which was assigned to duty with the Army 
of the Potomac, and with it made the march to Richmond and participated in the 
several engagements of the campaign until the retreat to Harrison’s Landing. He 
then resigned, on account of sickness, and during the winter of 1862 renewed the 
study of medicine in the Yale Medical School, from which he graduated in Feb¬ 
ruary, 1863, and immediately entered on duty in the Army Hospital at Germantown, 
Pennsylvania. In July, 1863, he was commissioned Assistant Surgeon in the Con¬ 
necticut volunteer service by Governor Buckingham, and reported for duty with the 
Second Connecticut Volunteer Artillery Regiment, then in the fortifications about 
Alexandria. In 1864 the regiment was assigned to the Sixth Army Corps, and 
Dr. Andrews continued with it until the close of the war. He was in the battles 
of Cold Harbor; in the subsequent movements before Petersburg; in the campaign 
in the Shenandoah valley under Sheridan; in the siege and final assault of Peters¬ 
burg; and in the pursuit and surrender of Lee and his army in April, 1865. In 
June, 1867, Dr. Andrews was appointed Third Assistant Physician at the State 
Lunatic Asylum at Utica, New York, and successively promoted to Second, and 
First Assistant, serving until October, 1880. While connected with the asylum he 
was an Assistant Editor of the American Journal of Insanity. In 1874 he was 
elected a permanent member of the New York State Medical Society. In June, 
1880, he was elected Superintendent of the Buffalo State Asylum. He is a mem¬ 
ber of the Erie County Medical Society and of the Buffalo Medical Association, 
and Lecturer on Insanity in the Buffalo Medical College. 

[367] 


HOMEOPATHIC ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE. 


By SELDEN H. TALCOTT, M. D., Superintendent. 

_p-, 

HIS institution is located at Middletown, New York, and was organized in 
1869 by Dr. George F. Foote. It was projected as a private enterprise, 
and to this end over $75,000 was subscribed by friends of homoeopathy in Orange 
county and throughout the State. The aim of its projectors was to apply, in 
the treatment of the insane, those principles of medicine embodied in the homoeo¬ 
pathic law of cure. 

Early in 1870 a bill to incorporate the institution was presented to the Legisla¬ 
ture, but it failed to pass the Senate, objection being made to the appropriation 
of $150,000 in aid of a private institution. Another bill was prepared, converting 
the asylum into a State institution, and in the following April it became a law. 
The first section of the act provided: “There shall be established at Middletown, 
in the county of Orange, a State Lunatic Asylum for the care and treatment of 
the insane and inebriate, upon the principles of medicine known as the homoeo¬ 
pathic: and it shall be known by the name of the State Homoeopathic Asylum 
for the Insane, at Middletown. There shall be twenty-one Trustees to manage 
said institution,” and George F. Foote, Thomas Hitchcock, Frederick A. Conkling, 
John David Wolfe, Peter S. Hoe, John K. Hackett, James P. Wallace, Phineas 
P. Wells, Henry R. Low, Elisha P. Wheeler, Oliver B. Vail, Robert H. Berdell, 
Richard B. Connolly, D. D. T. Marshall, Carroll Dunham, John F. Gray, Homer 
Ramsdell, Abraham B. Conger, J. Stratton Gould, Alonzo R. Morgan and William 
M. Graham were appointed as such Trustees. 

The Trustees were divided into seven classes, each class to hold office one, 
two, three, four, five, six and seven years, respectively; and lots were drawn to 
determine the class to which each should belong. The Treasurer of the State 
was directed to pay to the Trustees named in the act such sums of money as 
might be required for building the asylum, not exceeding $150,000 in the aggre¬ 
gate. A proviso was inserted in the law restraining the payment of these moneys 

until $150,000 had been subscribed and actually paid by private individuals for 

[368] 



STATE HOMOEOPATHIC ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE, MIDDLETOWN. 





























HOMCEOPATHIC ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE. 


369 


this enterprise; such subscriptions to be applied to the purchase of a site and to 
aid in the construction and maintenance of the asylum. 

The sum of $150,000 not being secured from private sources an amendment 
of the law was obtained March 21, 1871, which made it the duty of the State 
Treasurer to pay the sum of $20,000 for every $10,000 subscribed by private per¬ 
sons or municipalities. The appropriation, however, was not to exceed, in the 
aggregate, $150,000. The site chosen was a farm of two hundred acres, about 
one mile to the westward of the village of Middletown, situated on a hill com¬ 
manding beautiful views in every direction, and affording excellent facilities for drain¬ 
age and water and coal supply, and easy of access. The farm was paid for by 
private subscriptions. The Legislature has since made other appropriations, uncon¬ 
ditionally, for the erection of suitable buildings, and for improving the grounds. 
The first floor of the main building is designed for offices and reception-rooms, 
and for living apartments of the officers of the institution. The upper floors are 
used for wards, and accommodate about ninety patients. This main building is 
one hundred and sixty-six feet in length by sixty-two feet in depth, and is four 
stories high, exclusive of attic and basement. It is constructed in the Rhenish 
style of architecture, and combines strength with graceful beauty, affording a marked 
contrast to the stern and prison-like appearance noticeable in many asylum buildings. 
The edifice is built of pressed brick and trimmed with Ohio sandstone. The main 
or administrative building was completed and opened for the reception of patients 
on the 20th of April, 1874. About that time Dr. George F. Foote having resigned, 
Dr. Henry R. Stiles, of New York, was appointed Medical Superintendent. 

The first officers of the asylum were: Fletcher Harper, President; Grinnell Burt, 
Vice-President; Peter S. Hoe, Treastirer; M. D. Stivers, Secretary. Dr. T. F. 
Allen, Dr. Joshua Draper, Dr. John T. Gray, Dr. D. C. Jayne, Dr. E. D. Jones, 
Dr. E. M. Kellogg, Dr. J. W. Ostrom, Dr. H. M. Payne, Dr. William H. Watson, 
A. B. Conger, John Cowdry, James G. Graham, H. R. Low, D. D. T. Marshall, 
Daniel Thompson, Salem H. Wales, E. P. Wheeler, Trristees. 

In 1876 the right wing, or Pavilion No. 1, was completed and opened for 
patients. This pavilion, three stories high, is two hundred and four feet in length, 
and has one wing on the southerly end sixty-five feet in depth, and one on the 
northerly end seventy feet deep. It is built of brick and half-timbered work, and 
is so designed as to give the appearance of three distinct villas, connected by 
balconies and glass-covered galleries. Pavilion No. 2 was completed in August, 1881. 
The ground plan is the same in both pavilions, but “No. 2” is somewhat plainer 
and more substantial in its external adornments. The three buildings are connected 
by covered corridors, and the entire frontage is about seven hundred feet. The insti¬ 
tution has a capacity for about four hundred patients, and is being rapidly filled. 

47 


370 


HOMCEOPATHIC ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE. 


By an act of the Legislature passed June 21, 1875, the Board of Trustees 
was reduced from twenty-one to thirteen. The new Board was composed of the 
following-named gentlemen: Fletcher Harper, Jr., and Dr. Egbert Guernsey of New 
York; Grinnell Burt of Warwick; Joshua Draper, Nathaniel W. Vail, Uzal T. Hayes, 
James B. Hulse, James H. Norton, Moses D. Stivers of Middletown; James G. 
Graham of Newburgh; Daniel Thompson of Thompson’s Ridge; Dr. H. M. Paine 
of Albany, and Dr. William H. Watson of Utica. On the 9th of February, 1877, 
Dr. Henry R. Stiles resigned his position as Medical Superintendent, and on the 
13th of April, 1877, Dr. Selden H. Talcott was unanimously elected to the position. 
He assumed charge of the institution April 24th, 1877, and is still its Medical 
Superintendent. 

As in most new asylums, financial embarrassments were at first experienced; 
but these were, happily, in a short time overcome, and, under the last adminis¬ 
tration, the asylum has been a self-sustaining institution. This is due to increased 
numbers, and especially to the fact that a goodly proportion of paying patients 
have been received; and likewise to careful watchfulness over all current expendi¬ 
tures. The State Homoeopathic Asylum for the Insane has for seven years demon¬ 
strated to the world the efficacy of benign treatment and homoeopathic medication 
for those suffering from mental disturbances. Its work has been steadily progressive 
and successful, as the records of the annual reports testify. The methods employed 
at this asylum for the restoration of the insane are: 1. Homoeopathic medication. 

2. Discreet and persistent kindness. 3. The repair of wasted systems by abundant 
and nourishing food. 4. Regular exercise for those strong enough to take it. 5. 
Protracted rest, where that is deemed advisable. 6. Pure air and a constant atten¬ 
tion to personal cleanliness and the free use of the bath. 7. Amusement of a 
stimulating and agreeable nature. 8. Light employment, without pushing it to the 
extent of toil. 9. Association of the depressed and despondent with those who 

are bright, cheerful and pleasant. The patients are afforded the pleasure of weekly 
dances throughout the year, and participation in various light games. They also 

enjoy the use of billiard tables and croquet grounds, together with a large library. 

» 

Board of Trustees: Fletcher Harper, President; Grinnell Burt, Vice-President; 
M. D. Stivers, Secretary; Uzal T. Hayes, Treasurer; Egbert Guernsey, M. D., 
Daniel Thompson, Hon. James G. Graham, James H. Norton, Hon. J. G. Wilkin, 

Joshua Draper, Hon. Nathaniel W. Vail, William Vanamee and Hiram J. Sibley, Jr. 

Officers of the asylum: Selden H. Talcott, A. M., M. D., Ph. D., Medical 
Superintendent; William M. Butler, A. M., M. D., and C. Spencer Kinney, M. D., 
Assistant Physicians; John Cochran, Steward. Dr. N. Emmons Paine and Dr. 
Alonzo P. Williamson have also served as assistant physicians in this institution. 





















































FLETCHER HARPER, 

O F New York, President of the Board of Trustees of the State Homoeopathic 
Asylum for the Insane, at Middletown, New York, was born in New York 
city October 7, 1828. He received a collegiate education, graduating at Columbia 
College in New York city. He was formerly associated with Henry J. Raymond 
in the New York Times , under the firm name of Raymond, Harper & Company. 
He has since been a member of the present firm of Harper & Brothers, publishers, 
in New York city. 


SELDEN H. TALCOTT, M. D., 

"IV yTEDICAL SUPERINTENDENT of the State Homoeopathic Asylum for the 
Insane, at Middletown, New York, was born July 7, 1842, in Rome, Oneida 
county. His father, Jonathan Talcott, descended from John Talcott, who came to 
America in the ship Lyon in the year 1632, and settled in Connecticut, is of the 
same branch with Joseph Talcott who was Governor of that State for seventeen 
years, and of Samuel A. Talcott who was Attorney-General of the State of New 
York for five years from 1823. As a boy and youth Dr. Talcott received careful 
and liberal instruction. Although living on a farm, he had all the advantages of 
the academy at Rome, where he graduated, with the highest standing, in 1864. 
He immediately passed his entrance examination at Hamilton College, but one 
month later he enlisted as a private in the Fifteenth New York Volunteer Engi¬ 
neers. He served about one year, being present at the capture of Petersburg, 
and, owing to the close of the war, was honorably discharged June 30, 1865. He 
returned to Hamilton College and graduated in 1869. In college he was a Prize 
Speaker in his junior year, and one of the Clark Prize orators in his senior year, 
and also one of the editors of the Hamilton Campus. He received the degree 
of Master of Arts from his Alma Mater in 1874, and the honorary degree of 
Doctor of Philosophy from the same source in 1882. After graduating he studied 

[371 ] 


372 


SELDEN H. TALCOTT. 


medicine, and attended lectures at the New York Homoeopathic Medical College, 
from which institution he graduated, March i, 1872, being unanimously chosen 
Valedictorian of his class. After graduating in medicine he entered into partner¬ 
ship with Dr. E. A. Munger of Waterville, the oldest homceopathist in Oneida 
county. In September, 1875, was elected Chief of Staff to the Homoeopathic 
Hospital, on Ward’s Island. He also acted as Medical Superintendent of the 
New York City Asylum for Inebriates, and was for a time Medical Officer of 
the Soldiers’ Retreat, in New York city. In 1877 he accepted the position of 
Medical Superintendent of the New York State Homoeopathic Asylum for the 
Insane, at Middletown, which position he continues to fill. 

Dr. Talcott is a member of the American Institute of Homoeopathy; of the 
New York State Homoeopathic Medical Society; of the American Association of 
Medical Superintendents ; of the Homoeopathic Medical Societies of the counties 
of Oneida, New York and Orange; an honorary member of the Northern Medical 
Society of New York, and a Corresponding Fellow of the New York Medico- 
Chirurgical Society. He has been President of the Homoeopathic Medical Society 
of New York State, and of the similar society of Orange county. In 1879 
was appointed by the Regents of the New York State University a member of 
the State Board of Medical Examiners. He is now a Trustee in the First Pres¬ 
byterian Church, at Middletown, New York, a Trustee of the Middletown Savings 
Bank, and a Director of the First National Bank of Middletown. His life has 
been one of great industry, much time having been given to study and writing, 
in addition to that devoted to the numerous engagements of his profession. He 
has written eight elaborate annual reports of the institutions under his charge, 
numerous articles for medical journals, some of which have been copied into English 
magazines, and published several acceptable pamphlets on medical topics. He has 
delivered lectures and addresses before literary and other organizations, and is now 
a regular lecturer on insanity, its pathology and treatment, at the Hahnemann 
Medical College, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 


















































BINGHAMTON ASYLUM FOR THE CHRONIC INSANE 

















































BINGHAMTON ASYLUM FOR CHRONIC INSANE. 


By T. S. ARMSTRONG, Superintendent. 


^Jr HIS institution, which is pleasantly located in the city of Binghamton, occupies 
the buildings erected for the purposes of what was formerly the New York 
State Inebriate Asylum, they having been transferred to the care and management 
of the Binghamton Asylum for the Chronic Insane May 13, 1879. The structures 
are commodious and well built, and, since recent improvements have been com¬ 
pleted, they are well adapted for the uses of the present institution. Since the 

transfer extensive repairs have been made, and various conveniences conducive to 
the comfort and welfare of the patients have been introduced. Lavatories, with 
approved appliances, have been connected with both the north and south wings. 
The renovated and somewhat enlarged structure was formally opened for the recep¬ 
tion of patients October 24, 1881. It now has capacity sufficient for the accommo¬ 
dation of four hundred inmates, and is so designed that it may be enlarged from 
time to time, as the welfare of its insane population may require. On December 
12, 1881, fifty-seven patients had been transferred to the institution from other 
asylums, while the number of applications from others yet to come indicated that 
its ample accommodations would be fully utilized at no distant day. A farm of four 
hundred and eighty-seven acres, much of it in good state of cultivation, is attached 
to the asylum. The grounds immediately surrounding the buildings are tastefully 
laid out and planted with trees and evergreens, and ample space is devoted to 
gardening purposes. 

The original institution was established as an inebriate asylum by a benevolent 
association, under an act of the Legislature passed in 1854. The work of building 
was begun in 1858, and in 1864 the first inmates were received. In that year 
the edifice was partially destroyed by fire, but it was promptly rebuilt and again 
opened for patients in 1867. Immediately afterward the Trustees transferred the 
property to the State, retaining its control and management, however, until the 
institution was reorganized as an insane asylum. The expense of its support as 
an inebriate asylum was largely derived from the excise moneys, but a considerable 

[373J 


374 


BINGHAMTON ASYLUM FOR CHRONIC INSANE. 


revenue came from paying patients. The insane asylum is managed by a Board 
of Trustees, and the State Board of Charities and the State Commissioner in 
Lunacy visit it in their official capacity. 

Board of Trustees: G. W. Dunn, H. G. Rodgers, T. R. Morgan, R. A. Ford, 
E. O’Connor, E. Ross, Binghamton; Garvise Prince, Bainbridge; James Stewart, 
Oneonta; S. D. Halliday, Ithaca; F. O. Cable, George Truman, Owego. 

Officers: G. W. Dunn, President; H. G. Rodgers, Secretary; T. S. Armstrong, 
Superintendent; Edwin Evans, Steward; P. K. Burhans, Treasurer. 

GEORGE W. DUNN, 

O F Binghamton, President of the Board of Trustees of the Binghamton Asylum 
for the Chronic Insane, was born, of American parentage, at Castle Creek, 
Broome county, New York, November 27, 1840. Mr. Dunn was educated in the 
common schools, and has been engaged in business as a merchant and as a pub¬ 
lisher. He is at present the Manager of the Daily and Weekly Republican , of 
Binghamton, and is also Post-master in that city. He entered the United States 
Army May 3, 1861, as a private, and was discharged in May, 1865, having risen 
through the successive grades of Sergeant, Captain and Major to that of Colonel. 
He was taken prisoner at the first battle of Bull Run, but was exchanged June 
25, 1862, and subsequently participated in all the principal battles of the Army 
of the Potomac. Mr. Dunn is a Republican. He was Sheriff of Broome county 
from 1876 to 1879, an d is now a Police and an Excise Commissioner. 


THEODORE S. ARMSTRONG, M. D., 

S UPERINTENDENT of the Binghamton Asylum for the Chronic Insane, was 
born, of American parentage, at Guilderland, Albany county, New York, May 
11, 1825. His early life was spent upon a farm until he commenced the study 
of medicine. He graduated from the Geneva Medical College in 1847 and imme¬ 
diately engaged in the active practice of his profession. Dr. Armstrong is a 
Republican in politics. He was President of the Board of Education of the village 
of Owego from 1872 to 1878, and Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Tioga 
county in 1877, 1878 and 1879. He was appointed to his present position June 
1, 1880. 





















































































NEW YORK INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND 






















NEW YORK INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND. 


By WILLIAM B. WAIT, Superintendent 


JJr HIS institution owes its origin mainly to the exertions of Dr. Samuel Ackerly 
and Samuel Wood. Through their influence a petition, numerously signed, 
asking for the incorporation of such an institution, was presented to the Legisla¬ 
ture in 1831 ; and in April of that year a charter was granted for the New York 
Institution for the Blind. The object was to permanently establish a school for 
the education of young blind persons, by means and methods specially adapted 
to their condition. The difficulties incident to the beginning of the enterprise 
were many. Funds must be raised and a class formed. There were as yet no 
books, maps or other apparatus, and no teacher with experience could be obtained. 
Under these circumstances, Dr. John D. Russ, a member of the Board of Man¬ 
agers, generously consented to take charge of the class about to be formed, and 

commenced teaching, with three boys, March 15, 1832. On the 19th of May 

following, three other children were added to the class, and a school opened at 

47 Mercer street. As an early illustration of the way in which the institution has 
opened avenues of usefulness or self-support for a class otherwise quite hopeless, 
it may be noted that a member of this first class has risen to be an eminent 
teacher, a Minister of the Gospel, and head of a similar institution. 

In 1833 the school was removed to an old farm-house, standing on the site 
of the present building, within the limits of the westerly half of the block bounded 
by West Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth streets and Eighth and Ninth avenues. 
This site, the title of which, in fee-simple, was secured July 29, 1837, had been 

leased from Mr. James Boorman, May 1, 1833. In November, 1837, the north 

wing of a new building was commenced and the corner-stone laid December 6th 
of the same year. The main building was completed in 1840, and the south 
wing in 1842. To serve the convenience and provide for increasing requirements 
the easterly half of the block was leased March 23, 1842, and purchased May 6, 
1847. Two years later a building was erected on Eighth avenue, and the insti¬ 
tution entered upon the experiment of carrying on a commercial enterprise, with 

[375] 


376 


NEW YORK INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND. 


the laudable purpose of affording remunerative employment to adult blind persons. 
Experience, however, proved this attempt to be impracticable, and in i860 the 
effort was abandoned. In 1863 the easterly half of the block was sold and the 
proceeds applied to liquidating the indebtedness of the institution. In 1870 the 
accommodations were enlarged by the addition of a fourth story to the building 
on Ninth avenue, and the erection of a new building fifty by one hundred and 
thirty-two feet, and three stories high. The ground now occupied for the purposes 
of the institution is two hundred by four hundred feet. The building, which is 
built of Sing Sing sandstone, is one hundred and eighty feet on the front and 
two hundred and fifty feet on the wings. It is a plain but imposing structure, 
in the Norman style of architecture; and has accommodations for two hundred and 
fifty pupils. The cost of land and buildings has been $234,956.58. 

This property is devoted, without charge to the State, to this important branch 
of educational work. All legacies received are merged in the “ Legacy Fund.” 
These amount in the aggregate to $217,393.32, of which $151,819.41 has been 
permanently, and $13,738.73 temporarily invested at interest, and the remainder has 
been temporarily used for the purposes of the * institution. 

Board of Managers: Augustus Schell, Robert S. Hone, D. Lydig Suydam, T. 
Bailey Myers, John Treat Irving, Frances M. McLean, Smith Clift, William White- 
wright, William C. Schermerhorn, Charles de Rhain, Francis A. Stout, Frederick 
Augustus Schermerhorn, Peter Marie, Frederick W. Rhinelander, Frederick Sheldon, 
Chandler Robbins, Charles E. Strong, Philip Schuyler, Temple Prime, John I. Kane. 

Officers of the Board : Augustus Schell, President; Robert S. Hone, Vice-Presi¬ 
dent; T. Bailey Myers, Recording Secretary; William C. Schermerhorn, Corresponding 
Secretary; William Whitewright, Treasurer. 

William B. Wait, Superintendent; W. A. Hume, M. D., Attending Physician. 

AUGUSTUS SCHELL, 

“{^RESIDENT of the Board of Managers of the New York Institution for the 
^ Blind, was born, of German descent, at Rhinebeck, Dutchess county, New 
\ork, August 1, 1812. His family, an honorable and honored race of hardy 
pioneers, were among the early settlers of that part of the State of New York 
in which he was born. After receiving a preparatory education, Mr. Schell entered 
Union College, at Schenectady, New York, graduating at that institution in 1830. 
He studied law at the Litchfield Law School, Connecticut, and in New York city. 



\ 








AUGUSTUS SCHELL. 


377 


He was admitted to the Bar in October, 1833, and from that time until 1857 
was engaged in the active practice of his profession in New York city. During 
later years he has been chiefly occupied in the care of his estate and in the 
management of the corporations and public institutions with which he is connected. 
A Democrat from his youth up, Mr. Schell has been active in the politics of 
the State and Nation. He has held a prominent position in the management of 
the Democratic party as Chairman of the State and National Committees, and in 
the control of Tammany Hall during the most influential periods of its history. 
Mr. Schell was Collector of the Port of New York from 1857 to 1861, and was 
a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1867, and of the Constitutional 
Commission of 1872. He is President of the New York Historical Society, and 
has been President of the New York Institution for the Blind since 1866. His 
most important services after those of his professional career have been bestowed 
upon the control and direction of those great corporate interests, which have devel¬ 
oped the resources of the Continent. 


WILLIAM B. WAIT, 

S UPERINTENDENT of the New York Institution for the Blind, was born, 
of American parentage, at Amsterdam, Montgomery county, New York, March 
25, 1839. Mr. Wait was educated in Albany, in the public schools, at the Boys’ 
Academy, and at the Normal School. He attended the University lecture course, 
afterward read law, and in 1862 was admitted to the Bar. He was for several years 
engaged in teaching, and was also at one time Superintendent of Public Schools at 
Kingston, Ulster county. He enlisted in the army April 20, 1861, as a private in 
the Seventy-first Regiment, New York Volunteers. He was engaged in the first 
battle of Bull Run, and was discharged July 30, 1861. In 1873 Mr. Wait attended 
at Vienna the first International Congress of Teachers of the Blind. He presented 
before that body a valuable paper, showing the failure of the embossed line-letters — 
upper or lower case—designed for finger reading, and the superiority and utility of 
point-letters or signs, both for reading and writing. Mr. Wait is the author of a 
system of tangible writing and printing, and of a system of musical notation for 
the blind. Since 1870 he has been the Corresponding Secretary and Chairman of 
the Executive Committee of the American Association of Instructors of the Blind. 

48 


STATE INSTITUTION FOR THE BUND. 


By A. D. WILBOR, D.D., Superintendent. 


£J|HE Legislature of New York, on the 27th of April, 1865, passed an act 

entitled “An act to authorize the establishment of the New York State 
Institution for the Blind.” The act provided for the appointment, by the Governor, 
of five Commissioners, for the purpose of selecting a suitable site. Provision was 
also made for the appointment of three Commissioners to contract for and super¬ 
intend the erection of the buildings. They were required to report to the Comp¬ 

troller. The act further provided for the appointment of nine Trustees to take 
charge of the institution after its completion, and to serve without compensation. 
The sum of $100,000 was appropriated for the purposes of the act. The Locating 
Commissioners were as follows: E. W. Leavenworth, Syracuse; B. F. Manierre, 
New York; James Furguson, Ovid; O. K. Woods, Chazy; M. M. Southworth, 

Lockport. The site was selected in the village of Batavia, in the county of Gen¬ 
esee, upon grounds purchased and presented to the State by the citizens of the 
place. These consisted of fifty acres, situated upon the north-westerly edge of the 
village, overlooking a large and beautiful region of country. To these grounds were 
subsequently added sixteen acres, purchased by the State for a park and avenue. 
In March, 1866, the following persons were appointed Commissioners for the 
erection of the buildings: John Fisher, of Batavia; John Van Horn, of Lockport, 

and Lloyd A. Hayward, of Warsaw. In June following, a matured plan was sub¬ 

mitted to the Governor, Secretary of State and Comptroller, which was accepted, 
with a modification limiting the expenditure to the sum of $200,000. The Com¬ 
mission proceeded to discharge its duties, and on the 15th of July, 1868, the 
completed structure was delivered to the Trustees. 

The building is of brick, three stories in height above the basement, which 
is constructed of limestone quarried on the site. The water-table, quoin blocks 

and window dressings are of Lockport stone. The building faces the south and 
is composed of four structures, a front and rear center, and the two wings, 
connected by corridors, each fourteen by thirty-two feet, which contain the halls 

[ 378 ] 


NEW YORK STATE INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND, BATAVIA. 















STATE INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND. 


379 


and staircases. The central buildings are fifty by sixty-two feet and fifty by seventy 
feet respectively; the wings are each forty-six by one hundred and six feet on 
the ground. The length of the entire front is two hundred and six feet; the 
wings present a Hank of one hundred and six feet; and the distance from front 
to rear of the building, as thus completed, including portico, is one hundred and 
eighty-five feet. An experience of a few years, with the buildings, revealed the 
necessity for some important additions. As an additional sanitary measure the 
Board of Trustees erected a new building in 1875, twenty by thirty feet in size, 

attached to the north end of the west wing, used for the boys, and to it all the 

water-closets and bathing-tubs on the west side were removed. In 1876 an addi¬ 
tion was made to the north end of the east wing. This structure is of brick, 
forty-four feet wide and sixty-two feet long, of the same height with the wing. 

It is used for music-rooms and dormitories for the girls; the bathing-tubs and 
water-closets, which were originally located in the basement, were transferred to 
this new building. The cost of the two buildings thus added, including some 

improvements upon the grounds and some articles of furniture, was about $25,000. 
In the building as now completed ample accommodations are furnished for officers, 
teachers, __ and about one hundred and fifty pupils. 

The building is heated with steam throughout. The rain-water from the roofs 
is conducted into two large cisterns, having a capacity for four thousand barrels, 
from which it is pumped by steam into tanks, situated in the attics, and thence 
distributed by pipes to the different parts of the edifice. In addition to this pro¬ 
vision, a well, sixty feet deep, furnishes an inexhaustible supply of excellent water. 

The whole cost of the structure, including carriage-house and stable; excava¬ 
tions of cellars, cisterns and drains; digging well, grading, steam engine, expense 
of Commissioners and architect, was $244,587.24; additions in 1875 and 1876, 

$25,000; total, $269,587.24. 

Under the act establishing this institution the Governor of the State was 
required to appoint nine Trustees, who were to hold office for three years, and 
until others should be appointed. In April, 1866, the Governor appointed as 
such Trustees, John Stanton Gould, of Hudson; D. L. Ross, of New York; M. 
Lindlay Lee, of Fulton; John G. Orton, of Binghamton; Guy R. Pelton, of New 
York; N. Edson Sheldon, of Glens Falls; Egbert Harvey, of Buffalo; A S. 

Murray, of Goshen, and Henry C. May, of Corning. John Stanton Gould was 
elected President, and John G. Orton Secretary. By an act of the Legislature, 

passed April 24, 1867, the Governor was required, upon the expiration of the 
term of office of the first Board of Trustees, to appoint their successors. He 

designated the following Trustees to take office in April, 1869: John B. Skinner, 
of Buffalo; William Creigh, of Lockport; Lloyd A. Hayward, of Warsaw; John 


380 


STATE INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND. 


Fisher, George Bowen, Daniel W. Tomlinson, James M. Willett and Gad B. Worth¬ 
ington, of Batavia, and Randolph Ballard of Le Roy. John B. Skinner was chosen 
President, John Fisher, Treasurer, and Randolph Ballard, Secretary. 

The amount appropriated by the Legislature for the maintenance of the insti¬ 
tution from year to year has been about $35,000, besides varying amounts appro¬ 
priated from time to time for repairs and improvements. 

On the 30th of April, 1868, Asa D. Lord, M. D., who had been for twelve 
years Superintendent of the Ohio Institution for the Blind, accepted the office of 
Superintendent, and took charge of the institution on the 18th day of August 
following. The school was opened on the 2d day of September, 1868. Doctor 
Lord continued in charge for six and a half years, and until his death, which 
occurred Sunday, March 7, 1875. An experience of thirty years spent in teaching, 
during twelve of which he was Superintendent of the Ohio Institution for the 
Blind, at Columbus, had well fitted him for the position. He had also at different 
times occupied the editorial chair of the Ohio School Journal, The Public School 
Advocate, and The Ohio Journal of Education, with ability and success. The insti¬ 
tution at Batavia was a new one, and the work to which he was here called was 
a work of construction and organization. How well that work was done, is shown in 
the steady growth in the number of pupils, and the tenacity with which the principles 
he inculcated have maintained their influence in the school. When Dr. Lord died 
the institution stood in the foremost rank of similar institutions in the United States. 
Dr. Lord was succeeded in the Superintendency by his wife, Mrs. Elizabeth W. Lord, 
who resigned her office in 1877. Her successor was Rev. James McLeod, who was 
in turn succeeded in 1878 by the present incumbent, A. D. Wilbor, D. D. 

The primary object of the institution is not to supply a hospital for the treat¬ 
ment of blindness, nor an asylum or home for indigent blind of any age; hence 
the mere fact that a person is blind, however needy or worthy, gives no claim 
to its privileges. Only those supposed to be of suitable age and capacity to 

receive instruction can be admitted as pupils. The institution is simply a school 

for blind youth in good health, of good character and habits, and of respectable 
intellectual abilities. It is to be regarded as a part of the great system of public 
instruction sustained by the State, and intended to give to the blind the same 
advantages which New York has" so long and so freely afforded to children in its 
common and higher schools. As the blind cannot be so well taught in schools 
with other children, it is necessary, in order to instruct them economically, to 
collect them together; and in so doing the State provides for them board, lodging, 

etc., in addition to tuition. These are afforded to all alike, free of charge; the 

children of the wealthiest, as well as of the poorest, may accept them without any 
feeling of humiliation. The institution, though a benevolent, is not a charitable 


STATE INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND. 


381 


one in any opprobrious sense; and its pupils are beneficiaries in much the same 
manner as those who attend the common and Normal schools and other institu¬ 
tions which are sustained, or have been liberally endowed, at public expense. 

The studies are the same as those taught in other schools. The pupils learn 

to read raised print with the finger. The majority of them can do this with 

facility. Most of the instruction is given orally, a daily lesson being given and a 
daily recitation required of each scholar, in each of the studies pursued. These 
recitations, conducted either by questions or the use of topics, together with fre¬ 
quent reviews, constitute the means employed to impress upon the memory what 
is taught. Reading by the teachers, regularly each day, of current news, of books 
of history, biography, travel, etc., is employed as a means of cultivating general 
intelligence. Vocal and instrumental music are cultivated with special care, in 
order to furnish pupils a means of personal and social pleasure; and, also, where 

talent and industry will warrant, to qualify them for employment. 

In addition to the instruction given in literary and musical studies, several 
industries are taught with a view to enable pupils, after leaving school, to support 
themselves by their own endeavors. Young men are taught the art of making 
corn brooms, and, also, the art of tuning, and to some extent of repairing pianos. 
The young ladies are taught bead-work, knitting with hand and machine, crocheting, 
hand and machine-sewing, and other ornamental and useful employments. A very 
creditable percentage of those who have left the institution have done themselves 
great honor by their success in various pursuits. 

At the close of the twelfth year, June, 1880, four hundred and fifty-four pupils 
had received more or less instruction in the institution. The highest number regis¬ 
tered in any one year was one hundred and ninety-seven, in 1878. The number 
registered in 1880 was one hundred and eighty-two. The average attendance for 
forty weeks, the length of the school term, was in 1880 about one hundred and 
sixty. In the literary department five regular teachers are employed, and the same 
number in the musical department. Besides these, there are employed an account¬ 
ant, a matron and two assistant matrons, two teachers in the industrial department, 
a teacher of piano-tuning, a house-keeper, a carpenter, and a visitors’ attendant. 
A physician is employed to supervise the school as to its sanitary condition. 

Board of Trustees: Lloyd A. Hayward, Warsaw; Lucius N. Bangs, Le Roy; 
Hayden U. Howard, Michael Dailey, Batavia; Wolcott J. Humphrey, Warsaw; 
Robert S. Stevens, George T. Loomis, Attica; Nelson Holland, Buffalo; Gorton 
Bentley, Batavia. 

Officers of the Board: Lloyd A. Hayward, President; Levant C. McIntyre, 
Secretary; Hayden U. Howard, Treasurer. A. D. Wilbor, Superintendent. 


LLOYD A. HAYWARD, 

P RESIDENT of the Board of Trustees of the New York State Institution for 
the Blind, at Batavia, was born, of Scotch and English descent, at Winthrop, 
Maine, December 6, 1816. He received an academic education at the Middlebury 
Academy, a collegiate education at Amherst College, and prepared for the profession 
of law at the Harvard Law School. Previous to 1856 Mr. Hayward was a Demo¬ 
crat, but since that time has acted with the Republican party. He was a clerk 
in the Treasury Department at Washington at one time, and in 1861 and 1862 
he was Editor of the Warsaw Western New Yorker. Mr. Hayward was County 
Treasurer of Wyoming county from 1856 to 1862, and President of the Wyoming 
County National Bank in 1869 and 1870. He has been for many years President 
of the Board of Education in Warsaw. He was Building Commissioner of tire 
State Institution for the Blind from 1866 to 1870. Afterward he was one of the 
Board of Trustees, and for the last seven years has been President of the Board. 


ALBERT D. WILBOR, D. D., 

S UPERINTENDENT of the New York State Institution for the Blind, was 
born January 14, 1821, at Alexander, Genesee county. His parents were 

natives of Vermont, and his father in 1838 was a Member of Assembly from Erie 
county. Mr. Wilbor’s early education was obtained in the common schools. He 
afterward attended the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima, New York, pursuing 
most of the studies included in the classical course forty years ago, and earning 
his support mainly by teaching. He received the degrees of Master of Arts from 
Victoria College, Canada, and of Doctor of Divinity from Genesee College, Lima. 
He is now a member of the Genesee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. His life has been devoted to ministerial labor — two years in Detroit, 
Michigan, and for the past thirty-eight years in western New York — excepting 

the four years when he was General Agent and Treasurer of Genesee College. 

[382] 


















NEW YORK INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB 






































INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB. 


By ISAAC LEWIS PEET, LL. D., Principal. 


HE systematic instruction of deaf-mutes dates only from the middle of the 
last century, when, nearly at the same time, Heinicke in Germany, Braidwood 
in Great Britain, and De L’Epee in France, established schools for this unfortunate 
class. The first school of this kind in this country was opened at Hartford in 1816 
by Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet, who had studied the art of deaf-mute instruction 
under the disciples of De L’Epee in Paris. 

The New York Institution, incorporated under the presidency of De Witt Clinton 
April 15, 1817, and opened May 20, 1818, was, like the Hartford school, an off-shoot 
though an independent one, of the French system. It took its rise in a suggestion 
made by a French deaf-mute in a letter addressed to American philanthropists and 
entrusted to the United States Consul at Bordeaux, that a school for the deaf 
and dumb should be founded in this country. A few philanthropic gentlemen of 
New York, having become in this way interested in the subject, organized the 
institution which opened on the day above named with only four pupils supported 
by charitable contributions. This number increased to thirty-three in a single year, 
and it was found necessary to apply to the Legislature for aid. The State was 
prompt to recognize the claims of this educational work, and appropriated in 1819 
$10,000 and half the proceeds of the lottery tax in aid of the institution. This 
policy has since been continued, with a wise regard to the expanding needs of a 
rapidly-growing system, till now the benefits of a free education and of support 
while acquiring it, are extended to every deaf-mute child in the State. Children 
may be admitted at the age of six years. From that age till they are twelve 
years old they are supported by the counties; afterward by the State. The regular 
course of instruction for a State pupil occupies eight years, but an additional course 
of three years is provided for exceptionally proficient pupils. The attendance in 
late years has exceeded five hundred. The institution took up its first humble 
quarters in a room of the old alms-house, then situated in City Hall square.. In 
1829 it removed to Fiftieth street and Fifth avenue, where a suitable building had 

r 383] 


4 


INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB. 


been erected at the expense partly of the State and partly of the Directors. In 
1853 a tract of thirty-seven and one-half acres finely situated on the plateau over¬ 
looking the Hudson at Washington Heights, was purchased and the new buildings 
on this estate were occupied on the 4th of December, 1856. In 1878 an estate 

of seventy-five acres was acquired at Tarry town, and a branch of the school was 

established there. Here are gathered the younger boys, who thus enjoy the privi¬ 
lege of a regimen adapted to their peculiar needs. 

The rapid growth of the institution is due to the late Harvey P. Peet, LL. D., 

more than to any other one man. Called to the charge in 1831, he acted as 

President, Principal and Superintendent, and succeeded remarkably in raising the 
standard of education and in enlisting the support of the public and of the State 

authorities. Retiring from the Presidency in 1858, he was succeeded by Benjamin 

R. Winthrop. The succeeding Presidents have been Shepherd Knapp, 1869-1871 ; 
Rev. William Adams, D. D., 1871-1880; Hon. Henry E. Davies, LL. D., 1880-81; 
and Hon. Erastus Brooks, the present incumbent. In 1867 Dr. Peet retired from the 
office of Principal, and was succeeded by his son, Isaac Lewis Peet, who still occu¬ 
pies the position. In 1870 a change was made in the organization of the institution, 
by which it was divided into two co-equal departments — the educational and the 

administrative — the former remaining under the charge of the Principal, and the 

latter intrusted to a Superintendent and Physician. S. D. Brooks, M. D., for many 
years in charge of the New York Juvenile Asylum, was the first Superintendent, 
being succeeded in 1873 by William Porter, M. D., the present Superintendent. 

As has already been stated, the inspiration of this school was drawn from 
France, and the methods at first employed were those of the Abbe De L’Epee. 
This eminent educator differed from Heinicke and Braidwoocl in holding that while 
articulation may be advantageously taught in special cases, yet thought can exist 
without it, and that the main object of instruction should be written language. 
He also encouraged the use of signs, the natural language of the deaf. As this 
institution is eclectic rather than partisan in its methods, however, the practical 
success wrought out in schools which have concentrated their efforts on articula¬ 
tion has been recognized, and, without abandoning the original ground that written 
language is the main thing to be imparted, articulation is now taught to every 
pupil entering the school. The instruction in written language begins with the 
sentence as the unit, and, in the manner of object-teaching, accustoms the pupil 

to describe the objects and actions with which he is familiar. The system of 

signs, while not allowed to usurp the place of speech and of writing, has been 

developed in the direction of precision and vividness. Much use is made of dicta¬ 
tion. The teacher spells a sentence in the manual alphabet—the pupil being 

required to give the sign for each word, as a test of comprehension. They are 


INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB. 


385 


then required to write the sentence from memory. In the study of grammar, much 
use is made of a system of symbols invented by President Barnard of Columbia 
College, but extended by the present Principal of the institution, by which the 
grammatical relations of a whole sentence are shown at a glance. Much attention 
is given to linear drawing, each pupil receiving two hours’ instruction a week. 
Several recent graduates have had such training here as to render them successful 
in wood carving, engraving and painting. Lectures on various subjects are given 
by the teachers and illustrated by the valuable collections of the institution, and 
at times by its fine stereopticon. Reading is encouraged, and the pupils not only 
have access to the library of the institution, but also have the use of twenty-four 
folios in the Mercantile Library. The religious instruction given is free from any 
tinge of sectarianism, and the pupils are encouraged to look to clergymen of their 
parents’ faith for instruction in its tenets. The industrial education of the pupils 
receives great attention. The boys are taught either gardening, tailoring, cabinet¬ 
making, shoe-making or printing, while the girls receive instruction in appropriate 
feminine arts. In few instances do the graduates fail to become self-supporting 
citizens. The health of the pupils is sedulously guarded by the Superintendent — 
a physician specially skilled in sanitary science — and is remarkably good. Thus the 
institution offers to the deaf-mute the advantages of physical, mental, industrial and 
moral education, under conditions favorable to healthy growth in each of these 
directions. 

Board of Directors: Hon. Erastus Brooks, George D. Morgan, Hon. Enoch 

L. Fancher, LL. D., William A. Wheelock, Avery T. Brown, Albert M. Patterson, 
Rev. Charles A. Stoddard, D. D., Everett Herrick, M. D., Morris K. Jesup, Edward 

M. Townsend, Thatcher M. Adams, George F. Betts, Samuel Thorne, James O. 
Sheldon, George O. Robbins, William M. Halsted, Rev. Charles H. Parkhurst, D. D., 
Rev. Thomas Gallaudet, D. D., William Frothingham, M. D., Rev. Sullivan H. Wes¬ 
ton, D. D., William N. Fogg, Benjamin N. Field, John L. Tonnele, John T. Terry. 

Officers of the Board: Hon. Erastus Brooks, President;* Hon. Enoch L. 
Fancher, LL. D., First Vice-President; Rev. Charles A. Stoddard, D. D., Second Vice- 
President; George A. Robbins, Treasurer; Thatcher M. Adams, Secretary. 

Resident Officers: Isaac Lewis Peet, LL. D., Principal; William Porter, M. D., 
Superintendent and Physician; William Frothingham, M. D., Everett Herrick, M. D., 
Consulting Physicians; Chauncey N. Brainerd, Steward; William Randall, Clerk; 
Mrs. Susan L. Henry, Matron. 


* Henry E. Davies, LL. D., late President of the Board of Trustees of the New York Institution for the Instruction 
of the Deaf and Dumb, was also President of the Law Faculty of the University of the City of New York, and his 
biography will be found at pages 304-5 of the third volume of The Public Service of the State of New York. 

49 



PEET, LL. D., 


ISAAC L. 

P RINCIPAL of the New York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and 
Dumb, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, December 4, 1824. His father 
was Harvey P. Peet, LL. D., of Connecticut. Receiving his preparatory training 
at the Grammar School of the University of the City of New York, he entered 
Yale College, from which he graduated, in 1845, receiving the degree of Master 
of Arts, in 1849. In l % 7 2 Columbia College conferred upon him the degree of 
Doctor of Laws. After completing his college course he entered Union Theological 
Seminary, from which he graduated in 1849. He thenceforward devoted himself 
to efforts to ameliorate the condition of the deaf and dumb. After serving as 
Professor and Vice-Principal for several years in the New York Institution for the 
Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, in 1867 he succeeded his father as Principal 
of the institution. 


WILLIAM PORTER, M. D., 

S UPERINTENDENT and Physician of the New York Institution for the Deaf 
and Dumb, was born at Saratoga Springs, New York, August 29, 1830. He 
is of American parentage, and his father, grandfather and great-grandfather were 
physicians. He received an academic education at Skaneateles and at Homer, New 
York. From 1847 to 1851 h e studied medicine with Dr. E. H. Porter, at Skane¬ 
ateles, and Doctors Brigham and Benedict, at Utica. He attended lectures at 
Geneva, New York, in 1850, and graduated at the Medical College, in Buffalo, in 
1851. In the same year he was appointed Assistant Physician and Superintendent 
at the Retreat for the Insane, at Hartford, Connecticut. In 1S69 he resigned this 
position, and from 1870 to 1873 was Associate Physician with Dr. H. W. Buel in 
a private lunatic asylum, and in general practice in Litchfield, Connecticut. He 
was appointed to his present position March 12, 1873. 


[386] 













NEW YORK ASYLUM FOR IDIOTS, SYRACUSE. 






















NEW YORK ASYLUM FOR IDIOTS. 


By H. B. WILBUR, M.D 


first attempt in this country to found a State Institution for Idiots was 
made in New York, in the year 1846. Only a week after the meeting of 
the Legislature, the Hon. Frederick F. Backus, of Rochester, then a Member of 
the Senate, took the first steps to secure legislation in behalf of idiots. As Chair¬ 
man of the Committee on Medical Societies, he made a long and able report, which 
alluded to the generally prevalent opinion that “any efforts for improvement were 
of a perfectly hopeless character — an opinion so prevalent that even benevolent men 
in search of objects of commiseration and charity had passed them by;” described 
their condition, thus neglected and forsaken, and regarded “as incapable of instruc¬ 
tion as the brutes that perish;” affirmed that these views so long entertained were 
mistaken ones, and that the idiot could be trained and educated ; and gave a brief 
history of the European schools for idiots, sketching the favorable and practical 
results of those schools, as furnished by the testimony of scientific men of extensive 
reputation in Europe and America. The opinions of well-known superintendents 
of insane asylums, that asylums for idiots were a need of the age, from the number, 
present condition and susceptibility of instruction of the class in question, were 
quoted. During the same session, the late Dr. Brigham, in the annual report of the 
State Lunatic Asylum, at Utica, dated November 30, 1845, referred to the success of 
the European institutions for idiots, and expressed the hope that New York would 
provide an asylum for the especial improvement of that class of unfortunates. 
Dr. Backus then introduced a bill for the establishment of an asylum for idiots — 
appropriating $25,000 — which finally passed the Senate. This bill, at first con¬ 
curred in by the Assembly, was finally rejected by a small majority. During the 
interval between the session of 1846 and the one succeeding, Dr. Backus pushed 
his labors with unwearied zeal. He collected additional testimony from various 
sources, to be embodied in a second report, which he made in the Senate Feb¬ 
ruary 16, 1847. In 1847, a bill, establishing an asylum for idiots and making an 
appropriation for the erection of a suitable building, passed the Senate by a vote 

f3S 7 ] 



3 88 


NEW YORK ASYLUM FOR IDIOTS. 


of seventeen to seven. This was finally lost in the Assembly by want of time 
at the close of the session. Though Dr. Backus did not return again to the 
Senate, through his influence the subject was referred to in both of the annual 
messages of Governor Fish. In the first message of Governor Hunt, the attention 
of the Legislature was again called to the subject. Not resting with the mention 
of the subject in his message, he exerted himself otherwise to secure the foun¬ 
dation of an institution for the education of idiots. He invited Dr. S. G. Howe, 
of Massachusetts, to give an exhibition of the results of training and teaching in the 
case of some of the pupils in a school for idiots lately established there. This 
had its desired effect. The sympathies of the members of both branches of the 
Legislature were warmly enlisted, and an act was passed at the adjourned session, 
establishing an asylum for idiots, with a sufficient appropriation for its support for 
two years. Trustees were appointed by the Governor, whose names were a suffi¬ 
cient guaranty that the experiment would be fairly tried. Providentially a very excel¬ 
lent building for the temporary accommodation of the asylum was at once obtained 
in the vicinity of Albany, and it was opened for the reception of pupils October 
7, 1851. Dr. H. B. Wilbur, of Massachusetts, was appointed Superintendent. 

In less than a year from the first appropriation, at the session of 1852, pro¬ 
vision was made for an additional number of State pupils. In 1853 a bill was 
passed making an appropriation for the erection of suitable buildings for their accom¬ 
modation, thus placing the institution upon the same footing with the other State 
charitable institutions. While the subject of location was pending, an offer was made 
by some of the citizens of Syracuse of a gift of a suitable site in the vicinity 
of that city. This proposal was accepted. A building was erected that would 
accommodate one hundred and forty pupils. This was occupied in the autumn 
of 1855. From time to time, owing to the pressure of applications for admission, 
buildings have been added, till the present accommodations are sufficient for three 
hundred and twenty pupils. The site — about fifty-five acres-—-is a very healthful 
one in the suburbs of the city. The water supply is ample and there is oppor¬ 
tunity for a complete system of sewerage. The buildings are commodious and 
well appointed. 

From the very outset the aim and scope of the institution has been to train 
and educate the pupils submitted to its care principally in the direction of increasing 
their capacity for some useful occupation. All the school exercises are subordinated 
to this end. Conjointly with these there is special instruction in simple industrial 
occupations. Where such training is impracticable, efforts are made to increase the 
intelligence and improve the habits of the pupils so as to render their future care 
less burdensome, upon whomsoever it may fall. Experience has shown that some 
seventy per cent of the pupils are capable of some form of simple occupation, 

































































































NEW YORK ASYLUM FOR IDIOTS. 


389 


under intelligent direction. In fact, most of the older boys are employed during 
a portion of the day in farm and garden work or in the work-shops of the asylum. 
The girls are similarly employed in various household and domestic occupations. 

In 1878 the Legislature made provision for a custodial branch of the institution 

for adult female idiots. The immediate motive for the establishment of this branch 

was a fact brought to light by the visits of the members of the Board of State 
Charities to the county poor-houses. That fact was, that imbecile and idiotic females 
were frequently found in these institutions, who had been seduced, and then given 
birth to illegitimate children; in which case both parent and child became a perma¬ 
nent burden upon the counties. This asylum or branch is for the present accom¬ 
modated in a building leased for the purpose at Newark, Wayne county, where 

one hundred and forty inmates can be comfortably cared for. These are not only 
protected from the dangers to which their infirmity exposes them, but are trained 
to habits of industry and usefulness. It is the desire and expectation of the 
Board of Trustees of the New York Asylum for Idiots that at no remote period 
similar provision may be made for the proper custody of the adult male idiots of 
the State. With this end in view, a farm has been purchased at Fairmount, five 
miles west of the city of Syracuse. On this has been erected a building that will 

accommodate forty of the older male pupils, who will contribute, by their labor, in 

part to the cost of their support. If the experiment is successful, other buildings 

will be added from time to time as they are needed. 

Board of Trustees: Allen Munroe, George F. Comstock, Frederick D. Hunting- 
ton, Daniel Pratt, Nathan F. Graves, E. W. Leavenworth, Alfred Wilkinson, Frank 
Hiscock. 

Officers of the asylum: Hervey B. Wilbur, M. D., Siiperintendent; Miss Alvira 
Wood, Matron; Benjamin N. Eastman, Steward. 


ALLEN MUNROE, 

O F Syracuse, Secretary and Treasurer of the Board of Trustees of the New York 
Asylum for Idiots, was born at Elbridge, Onondaga county, New York, March 
10, 1819. His great-grandfather was born in Scotland, his grandfather, the Hon. 
Squire Munroe, was a native of Massachusetts. His grandmother was the grand¬ 
daughter of Colonel Benjamin Church, an officer in the army, in King Philip’s 
War. His father, Nathan Munroe, who emigrated from Massachusetts in 1794, 
was the founder of the Munroe Collegiate Institute, at Elbridge, New York. 


390 


ALLEN MUNROE. 


Allen Munroe prepared for the junior class in college at the Munroe Collegiate 
Institute, and at the age of eighteen years entered a store to learn a mercantile 
business. For eight years Mr. Munroe was engaged in business as a merchant in 
his native village. Removing to Syracuse in 1846 he became a manufacturer of 
flour and salt, and the agent of the Syracuse Company. He has been an active 
business man throughout his whole life, and has held many positions of trust and 
honor. He was President of the Onondaga County Savings Bank from 1855 to 
1876. In 1869 he succeeded his brother, James Munroe, as President of the Third 
National Bank of Syracuse. He has been Director and Secretary of the Syracuse 
Gas-Light Company thirty years, Trustee of Oakwoocl Cemetery from its inception 
nearly twenty-five years, President of the Syracuse Northern Railroad Company 
many years, Trustee of Munroe Collegiate Institute, and Trustee of the Asylum 
for Inebriates for many years. Since 1855 he has been Trustee, Secretary and 
Treasurer of the New York State Asylum for Idiots. He has now retired from 
active business life. Mr. Munroe cast his first vote for President for William Henry 
Harrison, and was a Whig delegate to the first Republican Convention, in Syracuse, 
in 1856. He represented the Onondaga district in the State Senate four years, 
and was a Member of Assembly in 1876. In 1854 he was Mayor of Syracuse, and 
has held various other city offices. He was Engineer-in-Chief on the staff of 
Governor John A. King. In 1864 he married Julia, daughter of the late John 
Townsend of Albany. 


H. B. WILBUR, M. D., 

O F Syracuse, Superintendent of the New York Asylum for Idiots, was born 

at Wendell, Massachusetts, August 18, 1820. The son of a clergyman, he 
is of strictly American parentage, both parents having descended from ancestors 
who were among the earliest settlers of this country. Dr. Wilbur received a colle¬ 
giate education, graduating at Amherst College in 1838. He studied medicine at 
the Berkshire Medical College in 1843, an d subsequently attended a course of 

medical lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. After practicing 

his profession for a brief period, he opened a private institution for the education 

of idiots, the first one in the United States. In the year 1851 he was appointed 
Superintendent of the State Asylum for Idiots. Dr. Wilbur is the author of various 
reports and papers relating to Idiocy and the management of the insane. 






NEW YORK HOUSE OF REFUGE, RANDALL'S ISLAND. 
































NEW YORK HOUSE OF REFUGE. 


By ISRAEL C. JONES, Superintendent. 


HIS institution, intended for the reformation of juvenile delinquents, is the 
result of the labors and experience of the Society for the Prevention of 

Pauperism, an association organized in the city of New York in the early part 
of the present century. At that period, no separation was made in the prisons of 
the State between mature and juvenile offenders; and the Society soon discovered 
the hopelessness of any efforts to reclaim and reform young criminals while the 

penal institutions, as then organized, continued to be seminaries of crime. 

The Society also realized the danger to the community if these young persons, 
who were tending toward a life of crime, were left in their unfortunate condition ; 
and they sought some practical way to rescue them from their vicious surroundings 
and so avert the threatened peril. 

There was no adequate means at hand to accomplish this work. The chil¬ 

dren whom they wished to save needed instruction, correction and care. Surrounded 
by poverty and degradation in their homes, they did not, unfortunately, come within 
the reach of the common schools, and the pernicious atmosphere of the alms-house 
and prison only introduced them to a larger experience of misery and crime. Under 
these circumstances it was clear, if any thing was to be done for the rescue of 

this class of persons, that an institution adapted to their necessities must be estab¬ 
lished. It was believed that in most instances the reformation of these unfortunate 
children was possible under proper training. They were ignorant, indolent and 
reckless; most of them had already begun a criminal course, and they were not 
amenable to ordinary family government, even if placed at once in respectable house¬ 
holds. The proposed institution must, therefore, embrace the means for holding in 
custody such as should be committed to its care. It was necessary that they 
should be removed from their unfavorable surroundings and be instructed in useful 
knowledge, and also be trained to some branch of honest industry. This class of 
children would not voluntarily submit to the restraints necessary to accomplish 
these results, nor would their parents willingly acquiesce in any such measures for 

[3911 


392 


NEW YORK HOUSE OF REFUGE. 


their improvement. Legal control of the children, and a place of confinement 
which should not have the character of a prison, but should approach as near as 
possible that of a home, were, therefore, necessary. The Managers must also have 
the power to bind to service such as had no proper homes to receive them when 
they were qualified to be discharged from the institution, as it would be desirable 
to place them under the best advantages to continue and complete their reforma¬ 
tion. The name of the institution was fitly called “The House of Refuge for the 
Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents,” or, in other words, a Reform School, the first 
of its kind in this country, and the pioneer in the work of juvenile reform. 

The government of the House of Refuge was vested in the “ Managers of 
the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents in the city of New York.” 
This beneficent and humane society was incorporated March 29, 1824—chapter 126, 
Laws of 1824. The incorporators consisted of the wisest and purest men in the 
city, and embraced among their number some of the ablest jurists and statesmen 
as well as philanthropists of that day; and as these in the course of time were 
taken away, others of the same character and spirit stepped in to fill their places. 
Under their control and guidance, the House of Refuge has always worthily enjoyed 
the confidence of the people, and has received liberal patronage from the State. 
It has been instrumental in rescuing thousands of imperiled children from vice and 
crime, and lifting them up to become useful and respectable citizens; some have 
even reached places of distinction and honor. It is of frequent occurrence that 
men and women, thus rescued when young, now in middle life or more advanced 
in years, visit the institution to express their gratitude; and some have engaged in 
the work of helping others as they themselves were helped. Since the organization 
of this institution nearly twenty thousand children — nineteen thousand nine hundred 
and forty-three — about one-fifth of them girls, have been committed to its custody; 
and statistics carefully prepared from the records, show the gratifying results that 
over seventy-three per cent of them have been saved to an honorable life. 

The first buildings occupied by the institution were located on the present site 
of Madison square in the city of New York, and were formerly used by the United 
States Government for an arsenal. The formal opening of the institution took 
place January 1, 1825, with appropriate services, there being nine inmates—three 
boys and six girls. The site was changed, in 1839, to the foot of Twenty-third 
street, East river, and again, in 1854, to its present location on the southerly part 
of Randall’s island. It derives its support from appropriations by the State; from 
the theater licenses in the city of New York; from its quota of the corporate 
school fund; and from the earnings of the inmates. This last source of income 
has been equal to about thirty-three per cent of the cost of maintenance. This 
institution at first only admitted children from the city of New York; but in 1826 — 


NEW YORK HOUSE OF REFUGE. 


393 


chapter 24, Laws of 1826 — the charter was amended so as to include criminal 
children from all parts of the State. On the completion of the “ Western House of 
Refuge’’ at Rochester in 1850, the charter was again amended—chapter 24, Laws 
of 1850—limiting commitments to the New York House of Refuge to the first 
three judicial districts, the other districts being assigned to the Western House. 

The present buildings, of brick, afford accommodations for one thousand inmates, 
seven hundred and fifty boys and two hundred and fifty girls. A distinguishing 
feature in the construction of these buildings is the opportunity they afford for 
classification, thus separating the more hardened and vicious inmates from those 
younger and less experienced in vice and crime. This institution was the first to 
adopt this principle. All are committed during minority, and every child on entering 
is made, as far as possible., to feel that the period of his detention rests with himself. 
As soon as his name is entered on the register he is taught the two rules: first, 
Tell no lies , and second, Always do the best you can. The discipline divides the 
inmates into four grades, which indicate their standing in the house. These grades 
are determined weekly, according to the marks received during the week. Grade 
one embraces the best behaved, and grade four the other extreme. The schools 
are graded, and promotions occur every three months. The three requisites for the 
inmates to obtain their discharge are: first, the grade one for six weeks in succes¬ 
sion ; second, they must be, at least, in the third class in the school; third, a 
proper home must offer to receive them. The first two the children must secure 
for themselves, and the last must be secured by their friends, or by the Managers 
who seek homes for them when their friends are unable to do it. 

The New York House of Refuge was established on the sound maxim that 
“Prevention is better than cure;" and this has been the inspiring and guiding 
thought through all its extended experience. 

The Managers are required by their Act of Incorporation annually to make a 
report to the Legislature and to the Corporation of the City of New York, in 
vyhich they render full account of their receipts and expenditures, and exhibit their 
work. 

Board of Managers: John A. Weekes, Frederick W. Downer, Andrew Warner, 
Richard M. Hoe, Henry De F. Weekes, Aug. R. Macdonough, William L. Andrews, 
Henderson Moore, Henry A. Cram, Charles P. Daly; James M. Halsted, Theodore 
H. Mead, Henry Dudley, John W. C. Leveridge, D. Jackson Steward, Nathaniel 
Jarvis, Jr., B. D. Silliman, Elijah H. Kimball, Robert Kelly, Alfred Wagstaff; 
Edgar S. Van Winkle, John J. Townsend, Benj. B. Atterbury, Wm. M. Prichard, 
Morris Franklin, Alexander McL. Agnew, Richard L. Larremore, J. S. T. Stranahan, 
Henry Q. Hawley, James H. Fay. 

50 


JOHN A. WEEKES, 

P RESIDENT of the Board of Managers of the New York House of Refuge, 
was born in the city of New York in the year 1820. He entered the Uni¬ 
versity of the City of New York in the year 1835 and graduated with the class 
of 1839. In 1842 he was admitted to the practice of the law in the courts of 
this State and of the United States, and since that time has been engaged in 
the practice of his profession in the city of New York. Mr. Weekes has been a 
member of the Board of Managers of the New York House of Refuge since 1844, 
and has been actively engaged in promoting the philanthropic objects of that insti¬ 
tution. He has also been interested in many of the sanitary and municipal reforms 
and literary and charitable associations of the city of New York. 


ISRAEL C. JONES, 


S UPERINTENDENT of the New York House of Refuge, was born at Salem, 
New London county, Connecticut, August 15, 1825. He is of American 
parentage, his Welsh ancestry having been among the first settlers of New London 
county, about the year 1645. During his boyhood he worked on his father’s farm, 
attending the district school in the winter, until he was twelve years of age, and 
afterward Bacon Academy in Colchester until his fifteenth year. At the age of 
seventeen he commenced to teach school, having first obtained a town and county 
school certificate, and afterward a State license, from the Department of Public 
Instruction in Albany. He continued teaching until 1851, when he was appointed 
Assistant Superintendent of the New York House of Refuge. April 1, 1863, he 
was appointed to his present position of Superintendent of that institution. Mr. 
Jones has never taken any active part in politics, further than to support the best 
men for office and the best measures for the government of the whole people. 
For more than thirty years he has devoted himself with undivided zeal to his 
present work. 


[ 394] 



















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. - iAw^m! v-<.vn*Si. 

t 


, '' j 




. ■■■ 


luiimli! 




WESTERN HOUSE OF REFUGE ROCHESTER 





























WESTERN HOUSE OF 


REFUGE. 


By LEVI S. FULTON, Superintendent. 


^i| HE Western House of Refuge for Juvenile Delinquents, at Rochester, has one 
of the finest edifices in Western New York. The farm belonging to the 
institution, on a portion of which the buildings are located, contains forty-two acres 
of excellent land, and lies about one mile and a quarter north from the central 
part of the city. 

The center building fronts east on Backus avenue, and is eighty-six feet wide, 
sixty feet deep and four stories in height above the basement. There are two 
wings, one extending to the north and the other to the south, each one hundred 
and forty-eight feet long, thirty-two feet deep, and three stories in height above 
the basement, excepting the square towers at the extremities, which are four stories 
high. The whole front of the building is three hundred and eighty-two feet in 
length. Two other wings of similar dimensions, extending directly westward, are 
connected with the front at the extremities. In the center building are the office, 
Managers’ room, Superintendent’s rooms and chapel. The chapel is neatly arranged 
and furnished and affords abundant room for eight hundred and fifty persons. The 
wings contain bath-rooms, dining-rooms, school-rooms, laundries and other offices; 
the upper floors are divided into separate dormitories for the inmates and furnish 
sleeping accommodation for six hundred boys. The hospital is on the south side 
of the premises, connected with the corridor which unites the south and west wings. 
It is built of brick, thirty-three by forty-one feet, and is two stories above the base¬ 
ment ; the ceilings are sixteen feet high ; the ventilation and heating arrangements 
are of the most improved kind. In the rear of the center building, twenty-six feet 
therefrom and connected by a covered corridor, is a building one hundred feet long 
by sixty feet wide, containing dining-rooms, kitchen, boiler-house, etc. 

The buildings are all surrounded by a stone wall. In the north-west and 
south-west corners of the inclosure are two work-shops, built of brick, each forty- 
five by one hundred feet, and three stories in height, affording abundant room for 
the employment of five hundred boys. Immediately north of the present buildings 

[ 395 ] 


39 6 


WESTERN HOUSE OF REFUGE. 


is the M graduating department,” a handsome structure just completed. The female 
department is a beautiful brick and stone edifice in the Norman style of archi¬ 
tecture, having a frontage of two hundred and seventy-six feet on Backus avenue. 
It is divided into different compartments; the main building is forty-six feet wide 
by fifty feet deep, with a rear addition thirty-six by twenty-two feet; the connecting 
wings are eighty feet long by forty feet deep, and the two end wings are thirty- 
three feet wide by forty-six feet deep; the center building is four stories high and 
the wings three stories. The sewerage in this department is absolutely perfect. 
The entire frontage of buildings on Backus avenue is nine hundred and thirty-four 
feet. Directly in the rear, and two hundred feet from the building just described, 
is situated a building for small girls. It is composed of a center building forty-two 
by fifty-four feet, four stories high, and two wings, each forty by eighty feet, 
three stories high. Each department, both male and female, is supplied with gas 
and pure Hemlock lake water. Six hydrants for fire purposes are located at 
convenient points within the inclosure. 

An act authorizing the establishment of a House of Refuge for Juvenile 
Delinquents in Western New York, passed the Legislature May 8, 1846. This 
act included provision for children of both sexes, but it not being practicable to 
have boys and girls in one house, that portion relating to females was repealed 
by an act passed April 10, 1850. Afterward, by the most earnest and strenuous 
exertions of the Superintendent and others, an act was passed May 1, 1875, author¬ 
izing the erection of a “female department.” 

The institution is regulated by a Board of fifteen Managers, appointed by the 
Governor. Its officers are a Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, Matron, 
Physician, one Protestant and one Catholic Chaplain, two male and twelve female 
teachers, overseers and others. Boys and girls under sixteen years of age are 
received into the institution upon regular commitments, and are required to earn 
their discharge by good conduct. Every inmate must gain four badges, to obtain 
each of which requires sixteen weeks of good deportment. Violation of rules, 
offenses and misdemeanors subject the delinquent to change of badge, thereby for¬ 
feiting weeks which must be again earned. The institution is supported by an 
annual appropriation of the Legislature and by the earnings of the inmates. 

The male department was opened for the reception of inmates August 11, 1849. 
Since that time nearly six thousand boys have found a home within its walls, and 
over five thousand have been discharged to their friends, or suitable places have 
been secured for them. The female department received its first inmate October 
3, 1876. Since that time two hundred and seventy-eight girls have been received, 
and one hundred and nine discharged. The boys are employed in shoe-making, 
tailoring, and flagging and caning chairs for firms doing business in the city, and 


WESTERN HOUSE OF REFUGE. 


397 


in baking, cooking, laundry work and in the general care and work of the house. 
All the sewing for the institution is done in the girls' department. 

Since Levi S. Fulton, the present Superintendent, assumed his duties, April i, 
1870, every thing of a prison-like nature has, as far as possible, been removed, and 
the regime of a Reform School and Home has prevailed in the institution. Every 
effort has been put forth to elevate and reform, and habits of cleanliness, persever¬ 
ance and self-control have been encouraged. Bare tables with tinware furniture have 
been supplanted by the table-cloths and dishes used in ordinary homes. The round- 
top stool has given place to chairs, and the walls are decorated with suitable 
mottoes. The school-rooms, which previously had long desks and round-top stools, 
have been furnished with individual polished hard-wood desks and chairs, so that 
the furniture and appointments are as handsome as in our public schools. The 
chapel has been beautified and enlarged, and a gallery erected for the accommoda¬ 
tion of the girls. Religious services are held every Sunday morning and afternoon. 
This room is also used for exhibitions, concerts, entertainments, lectures, etc. It 
is furnished with drop-curtain, foot-lights and scenery for dramatic performances. 
The old wooden benches have been superseded by neat polished chairs. 

All the National holidays are observed, and no effort is spared to make the 
inmates happy and contented. Every legitimate game is encouraged for healthful 
recreation. Marbles and kites in the spring give place to ball playing in summer, 
and every week during the season clubs from the city come to contest with the 
boys at base ball. Each of the house “ nines ” is furnished with nice suits. Then 
when winter sets in, each division has its rink for skating, and sliding-ways are 
erected for coasting. Hand-sleds and foot-balls are provided, and it is truly exhila¬ 
rating to see the enjoyment of the inmates. Nor has the improvement- been only 
in this direction, for the premises have been beautified, buildings enlarged and 
new edifices erected. When sick, the inmates are kindly treated and cared for by 
the physician and nurse and by each other; when, as is sometimes the case, death 
invades the household and friends do not take the remains, they are given decent 
burial in a lot owned by the institution in “Mount Hope” cemetery. 

Board of Managers : William Purcell, William N. Sage, Fred. Cook, D. W. 
Powers, Henry S. Hebard, W. C. Rowley, Ezra R. Andrews, Louis J. Billings, A. M. 
Semple, Jonas Jones, J. D. Decker, E. B. Chace, Ira L. Otis, Valentine F. Whit¬ 
more and D. D. S. Brown. 


WILLIAM N 


. SAGE, 

P RESIDENT of the Board of Managers of the Western House of Refuge at 
Rochester, New York, was born at Ballston, Saratoga county, New York, 
February 15, 1819. He is the second son of Oren Sage, and traces his descent 
to David Sage of Cromwell, Connecticut, who came to this country from Wales in 
1654. At the age of eight years William N. Sage removed to Rochester, where he 
has since resided. He received a preparatory education in the public schools and 
in the Rochester Collegiate Institute, and a collegiate education at Brown Univer¬ 
sity, where he graduated in the class of 1840. From 1842 to 1857 he was engaged 
in the book and publishing business. In the year i860 he established himself in his 
present business as a manufacturer and wholesale dealer in boots and shoes, under 
the firm name of Pancost, Sage & Morse. Mr. Sage was a Whig previous to 1854, 
but since that time has been an active supporter of the Republican party. He 
was the author of a series of political resolutions presented at a meeting called in 
Rochester in 1854. These resolutions were indorsed by the press of the State, 
and proved the beginning of the movement which resulted in the organization of 
the Republican party in the State of New York. Mr. Sage was the first Repub¬ 
lican County Clerk of Monroe county, being elected in 1855. He has been the 
Financial Manager of the University of Rochester for thirty-three years, having 
been elected Secretary and Treasurer of that institution in 1849. He has been 
for thirty-three years Trustee and President of the Monroe County Savings Bank, 
twelve years President of the Rochester Safe Deposit Company, one of the Board 
of Managers of the Western House of Refuge for four terms, and the last two years 
President of the Board. Mr. Sage is President of the Rochester Orphan Asylum, 
of the Rochester Charitable Society, and of the Citizens’ Association; and is also 
Chairman and Director of several other charitable associations. He is also executor 
of three estates, with numerous other important responsibilities. 














LEVI S. FULTON, 


S UPERINTENDENT of the Western House of Refuge, was born in Parma, 
Monroe county, New York, August 30, 1819. His parents, who were natives 
of Massachusetts, removed to Parma in 1811. His father, Captain Robert Fulton, 
commanded a company of volunteers in the War of 1812; he was appointed Post¬ 
master at North Chili, New York, at the commencement of Jackson’s administration, 
and held that office until Mr. Lincoln was made President. Levi S. Fulton was 
educated principally in the public schools and at a commercial school; he is, how¬ 
ever, to some extent a self-educated man. From 1843 to 1850 he was a teacher 
in the public schools. In 1851 he was appointed clerk to the Superintendent of 
the Erie canal, and filled that position two years. From 1852 to i860 he was 
Deputy Collector of Customs of the Port of Genesee, and from 1861 to 1870 
Superintendent of the Monroe County Penitentiary. He was appointed to his 
present position of Superintendent of the Western House of Refuge February 15, 
1870. Mr. Fulton is the author of “Fulton’s Principles of Penmanship,” “Fulton’s 
Chirographic Charts,” “ Fulton’s School Writing Books,” also a system of Book¬ 
keeping by single entry, and of a system of Book-keeping by double and single 
entry, and other similar works. According to a custom in the Monroe County 
Penitentiary, the incumbent of the office of Superintendent is called Captain, and 
from this custom Captain Fulton derives his title, as he has never served in the 
army. In politics he is a Democrat, and for some years was an active working poli¬ 
tician, but he has of late devoted himself entirely to the duties of the responsible 
positions he has filled. 


[390] 


NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 


By Z. R. BROCK WAY, Superintendent. 

^HE New York State Reformatory at Elmira is the product of an improved 
sentiment throughout the State of New York particularly, and generally 
throughout the whole country, on the subject of crime and its treatment. This 
sentiment is the result, in a great degree, it is believed, of the investigations, dis¬ 
cussions and publications of the Prison Association. The first legislation in relation 
to the Reformatory was had in 1869, when Commissioners were appointed to locate 
the Reformatory. In 1870 an act was passed designating Building Commissioners, 
who entered upon the preliminary work of construction. These Commissioners 
were legislated out of office by the act of 1873. In 1874 the work of construc¬ 
tion was placed under the special direction of a superintending builder, under 
whose administration certain changes were made in the original plan, by which 
the cost of the structure was somewhat reduced. The act of 1876 appointed a 
Board of Managers, charged with the triple duty of completing the building, 
organizing the institution, and conducting it for the purpose intended. In July of 
that year, prisoners were first received (transferred from the State Prisons) to work 
upon the structure and grounds. Under this Board of Managers the Reformatory 
has been carried on to its present point of completion. Its cost approaches one 
and a quarter million of dollars, supplying, it is believed, a very complete estab¬ 
lishment, not excelled, if equaled, by any other in existence. 

In 1877 the act was passed under which the Reformatory took on its dis¬ 
tinctive features and under which it has since been conducted. The inmates are 
all males between the ages of sixteen and thirty years, and are supposed to be 
first offenders. The courts have selected them as susceptible to reformation, sen¬ 
tencing to the Reformatory instead of to the State Prisons, in the exercise of 
their discretion. Inmates are not under sentence for a definite period of time, 
but may be held for the maximum of the law, or released at any time by the 
Managers. This power of the Managers places inmates under the most powerful 
motive to follow their directions in behavior, in industry and in education. The 

[400] 


STATE REFORMATORY, ELMIRA. 










































NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 


401 


system of treatment adopted is educational and rational, recognizing that the per¬ 
ceptions and sentiments need training as a preparation for abiding moral or religious 
impressions. The definite purpose is to restore the criminal to liberty as soon as 
he may be a reasonably safe citizen. To this end a mark system was adopted, 
under which progress can scarcely be made without such self-controlling demeanor 
and such growth of reasoning faculties by education as shall form new habits, 
together with wiser and better purposes. The course of training is supplemented 
by a conditional release under which the man is liable to be returned to confine¬ 
ment if he violates the condition of his parole. This plan has proved a great 
aid to reformation. 

The results of the first five years are summarized thus — 

The whole number of inmates received is one thousand two hundred and 
thirty-eight, of whom nine hundred and forty-seven were sentenced under the law 
of 1877 for an indefinite term. Of these, eight were not treated, being prema¬ 
turely discharged by pardon or otherwise. Considering the nine hundred and 
thirty-seven treated, society is protected from ninety-three per cent of them, as 
follows, namely: four hundred and seventy-two remain in confinement; eleven have 
died; twenty-one have been removed to other prisons and are in durance now; 
two hundred and sixteen paroled men served well and earned their absolute release 
after six months or more; one hundred and ten are serving well now and are 
in regular correspondence with the institution ; four were absolutely released with¬ 
out parole, through conduct being established. One-half of the remainder (forty- 
eight out of ninety-six), who have ceased correspondence, are estimated to be doing 
well, making eight hundred and eighty-two, or ninety-three per cent, as above 
stated. Of the number (four hundred and forty-two) sent out on conditional 
release, eighty-four per cent have abandoned criminal practices and are living regu¬ 
larly as follows, namely: two hundred and sixteen behaved well and earned their 
release after six months; one hundred and ten are in correspondence now and 
doing well. One-half of those who have ceased correspondence are reasonably 
supposed to be doing well, making three hundred and seventy-four, or eighty-four 
per cent of the number released on parole. 

Board of Managers: John I. Nicks, William C. Wey, Stephen T. Arnot. David 
Decker, Ariel S. Thurston. 


5i 


JOHN I. NICKS, 

P RESIDENT of the Board of Managers of the New York State Reformatory, 
was born at Rhinebeck, Dutchess county, New York, January 21, 1822. Edu¬ 
cated in the common schools, he early became an apprentice in a tobacco factor}' 
at Red Hook, New York. In 1847 he removed to Elmira and entered into the 
tobacco business for himself, becoming one of the largest manufacturers and whole¬ 
sale dealers in tobacco in the State. Mr. Nicks is a Republican. He was a 
Supervisor of Elmira in 1851 ; a Trustee of the village for several terms; a mem¬ 
ber of the Board of Education, and Chief Engineer of the Fire Department. He 
was elected Mayor in 1865 and re-elected in 1866. From 1862 to 1866 he was 
United States Internal Revenue Assessor for the Twenty-seventh District of New 
York. In 1866 he was elected to the State Senate to fill a vacancy, and the fol¬ 
lowing year was re-elected for the full term. He became a Manager of the New 
York State Reformatory in 1880 and President of the Board in 1881. He has 
been a Trustee of the Elmira Female College since 1856. 


Z. R. BROCKWAY, 

G ENERAL SUPERINTENDENT of the New York State Reformatory, was 
born at Lyme, Connecticut, April 28, 1827. His father, Colonel Zebulon 

Brockway, was a prominent citizen of New London county, Connecticut, a Member 
of the General Assembly, a Senator and a Judge. Mr. Brockway was educated in 
the common schools and at Brainard Academy, Hadam, Connecticut. Since the age 
of twenty-one he has been connected with the management of State Prisons. His 
first experience was as a clerk in the Connecticut State Prison. He has since 
been Assistant Superintendent of the Albany County Penitentiary, Superintendent of 
the Monroe County Penitentiary seven years. Superintendent of the Detroit House 
of Correction at Detroit, Michigan, ten years, and General Superintendent of the 
Elmira Reformatory from its opening until the present time. 

[402 ] 













SOLDIERS AND SAILORS’ HOME. 

























SOLDIERS’ AND SAILORS’ HOME 


£^*HIS institution, designed for the destitute sick and wounded soldiers and sailors 
v./ of the Empire State, was formally opened and dedicated January 23, 1879. 
This final result was accomplished by State legislation, by public appropriation, 
and by private beneficence. Nearly nineteen years before, the subject of establishing 
a Soldiers’ Home was agitated, but the idea was not generally encouraged, and 
the project was for the time abandoned. The experience of succeeding years, 
however, demonstrated the great need of such an institution. Committees were 
appointed at different times to consult as to the expediency and feasibility of 
providing a more suitable home for these needy pensioners of the government 
than could be found in the county alms-houses, and the subject was on various 
occasions presented to the attention of the State Legislature. In 1872, through 
the personal efforts of General Henry A. Barnum, then commanding the Depart¬ 
ment of New York of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Legislature passed 
an act incorporating the New York Soldiers’ Home. 

No appropriation being made, however, nothing was accomplished until in 1876, 
large sums of money having been received from private benefactions, a bill of 
incorporation passed the Legislature, and was signed by Governor Tilden. The 

site at Bath was decided to be the best of many others offered for the purpose; 

and in 1877 the erection of the building was commenced, and practically finished 

in the winter of 1879. The farm upon which the Home is located consists of 

two hundred and forty-one and a half acres, and is situated about one mile and 
a half north-west of the village of Bath. It is thoroughly drained by the Conhocton 
river, and is particularly healthy and sightly in its location. The buildings of the 
Home consist of one large main building, one hundred and twenty-five feet long 
by sixty feet wide, two lateral buildings, each one hundred and twenty-five feet 
long by thirty feet wide, and one administration building, including chapel and 
library, thirty-five feet by eighty feet. All these buildings are three stories high, 
and are built of the best quality of brick. The first floor of the main building 

The upper floor of this building, and all the 
[403] 


is used as a dining-room and kitchen. 



404 


SOLDIERS’ AND SAILORS’ HOME. 


rooms of the barracks, are used for dormitories and wash-rooms. There is also a 
hospital two stories high, built of brick, with capacity for the comfortable accom¬ 
modation of one hundred patients with necessary attendants. Directly in the rear 

of the main building is an addition one story high, which contains the bakery and 
ovens. Fifty feet in the rear of the main building is a one-story brick building 

containing the laundry, bath-rooms, engine-room and boiler-room. The sewerage 
and ventilation of the building are arranged upon a highly approved plan, and 
are entirely successful. The building is heated by steam radiators, and lighted 
by gas manufactured on the premises, an unusually fine quality being obtained. 

Besides the above-mentioned dwellings there are on the farm one good dwelling- 
house, the old homestead and several tenement houses and barns. 

The number of inmates now on the rolls is six hundred and ninety-two, and 
the number of pensioners, sixty. 

Board of Trustees : Henry W. Slocum, President; Isaac F. Ouinby, Vice-Presi¬ 
dent; Jonathan Robie, Secretary and Treasiirer; John Palmer, William F. Rogers, 
Byron B. Taggart, Hosea H. Rockwell, Grattan H. Wheeler, William E. Howell. 

Officers of the Institution: T. G. Pitcher, U. S. A., Superintendent; R. H. 
Gansevoort, Adjutant; I. S. Dolson, Surgeon; C. C. Leavens, Steward. 

HENRY WARNER SLOCUM, 

O F Brooklyn, President of the Board of Trustees of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ 
Home at Bath, was born in Delphi, Onondaga county, New York, September 
24, 1827. His father, a native of Newport, Rhode Island, where his ancestors had 
resided for three generations, removed to Albany about the year 1802, and thence 
to Delphi, where he was engaged in mercantile pursuits until his death in 1853. 
General Slocum received an academic education at the Cazenovia Seminary, and 
entered the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1848, whence he 
graduated in 1852. 

He was assigned to duty in the Regular Army as a Lieutenant in the First 
Artillery, serving two years in the interior of Florida and three years at Fort 
Moultrie in South Carolina. In 1857 he resigned his commission, and, having 
read law while in the army, he was immediately admitted to the Bar and com¬ 
menced the practice of law at Syracuse, New York. In 1859 he represented the 
Second District of Onondaga county in the Assembly, and in i860 he held the 
office of County Treasurer. 























HENRY WARNER SLOCUM. 


405 


In 1861» he re-entered the military service, and was made Colonel of the 
Twenty-seventh Regiment New York Volunteers. At the first battle of Bull Run, 
he received a wound which confined him to the hospital two months. During this 
time he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General and, as soon as his health 
warranted further field service, he was assigned to the command of a brigade 
under McClellan. During the campaign on the Peninsular he was given the 

command of a division in the Sixth Corps under General Franklin, and after the 
seven days’ battle in front of Richmond, he was made Major-General. In the 

Maryland campaign under McClellan, he took part in the battles ot South Moun¬ 

tain and Antietam, and was immediately after assigned to the command of the 
Twelfth Army Corps. General Slocum was also in the battle at Chancellorsville, 
and during the great struggle at Gettysburg he commanded the right of Mead’s 
army. In the spring of 1864, he was assigned to the command of the Depart¬ 
ment of Mississippi with head-quarters at Vicksburg. General Slocum was subse¬ 
quently placed in command of the Twentieth Corps, and when General Sherman 
forced the enemy to leave the intrenchments around Atlanta to meet him in the 
field, he marched into the city. Within an hour the telegraph line was estab¬ 

lished, and its first message was a dispatch from General Slocum, carrying to the 
North the glad tidings, “Atlanta has fallen.” When General Sherman planned 
the campaign “ from Atlanta to the Sea,” he gave General Slocum command of 
the Fourteenth and Twentieth Corps, constituting the left wing of his army. Later 
on during the campaign these two corps were constituted by President Lincoln an 
army designated as the “Army of Georgia,” and General Slocum was assigned the 
command, He continued in this position until the close of the war, when he was 
again sent to command the Department of Mississippi. In the fall of 1865 he 
resigned his commission in the army, and in the spring of 1866 took up his resi¬ 
dence in Brooklyn, where he has since resided. In 1868, he was the Presidential 
Elector-at-Large on the Democratic ticket. In the Forty-first and Forty-second Con¬ 
gresses he was the Democratic Representative of the Third Congressional District, 
an honor especially marked, as that District is strongly opposed to him politically. 


ISAAC F. QUINBY, 


V ICE-PRESIDENT of the Board of Trustees of the New York State Soldiers’ 
and Sailors’ Home, was born, of American parentage, at Halsey town, Morris 
county, New Jersey, January 29, 1821. He received a preparatory education in 
the common schools, and in 1839 entered the United States Military Academy at 
West Point, where he graduated in 1843, with the rank of Brevet-Second Lieutenant. 
He was Second Lieutenant in 1844 and 1845, First Lieutenant in 1846, Regi¬ 

mental Quartermaster of the Third United States Artillery in 1848, and Adjutant 
in 1850 and 1851. He resigned from the army in 1852, having been appointed 

Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in the University of Rochester 
in September, 1851, a position he has retained to the present time, his mili¬ 
tary services during the War of the Rebellion being rendered under leave of 

absence from the University. In April, 1861, he raised the Thirteenth Regiment, 

New York Volunteers, and participated with his regiment in the first battle of 
Bull Run. In March, 1862, he was commissioned Brigadier-General and sent to 
take command of the so-called Yazoo Pass expedition. He had established his 
batteries at Fort Greenwood, at the junction of the Tallahassee and Yokana Patafa 
rivers, and was ready for an assault when he received orders to return, as the 
whole plan of the campaign had been changed. He was afterward ordered North 
on sick leave, on the expiration of which he resumed command of his division, 
and participated in the battles of Champion’s Hill and in the assault on Vicksburg. 
June 5, 1863, he again returned North, on account of ill-health, and was assigned to 
the command of the Recruiting Rendezvous, at Elmira, New York. His continued 
ill-health unfitting him for active service, in December, 1863, he resigned his com¬ 
mission and resumed the duties of his professorship in the University of Rochester. 
During a part of 1864 and also of 1865, General Quinby was Provost-Marshal of 
the Twenty-eighth Congressional District of New York, and United States Marshal 
of the Northern District of New York during President Grant’s administration. 
He has been Trustee of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home since its organization. 
He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 1866 from Hobart College. 


[406] 




THOMAS GAMBLE PITCHER, 

S UPERINTENDENT of the New York State Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home, 
at Bath, was born, of English ancestry, at Rockport, Spencer county, Indiana, 
October 23, 1824. He received his early education in the common schools, and 
in January, 1841, entered the United States Military Academy, where he graduated 
June, 1845, entering the army as Brevet-Second Lieutenant. He rose through all 
the successive grades in the Regular Army to the rank of Colonel, and was also 
made Brigadier-General of Volunteers during the War of the Rebellion. General 
Pitcher served in the war with Mexico, being engaged in the battles of Palo Alto, 
Resacca de la Palma and Monterey; in the siege of Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, 
Churubusco, Chapultapec, and in the capture of the city of Mexico. He served 
•during the War of the Rebellion until the battle of Cedar Mountain, where he 
was seriously wounded and disabled for field service. He was Superintendent of 
the United States Military Academy in 1866; and Governor of the Soldiers’ Home, 
at Washington, District of Columbia, from 1871 to 1877. June 28, 1878, he was 
retired from active service with the rank of Colonel. He was appointed to his 
present position March 1, 1880. 


JONATHAN ROBIE, 

O F Bath, Secretary and Treasurer of the New York State Soldiers’ and Sailors’ 
Home, was born at Bath, Steuben county, New York, September 3, 1834. 
His father, Reuben Robie, of Scotch descent, was born in Vermont, and his mother, 
of English descent, was a native of Maine. Mr. Robie received his education in 
the public schools, and early engaged in business. He has been for many years 
a merchant in dry goods, and is also interested in agricultural pursuits. Mr. 
Robie was appointed Trustee of the New York State Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home 
in 1878, and was reappointed in 1880. He was elected Treasurer of the institu¬ 
tion in 1880, and Secretary in 1882. 


[407] 


THE PORT OF NEW YORK. 

JJTHE city of New York is one of the most favorably situated among the 

commercial emporiums of the world. Originally confined to the southern 

extremity of the island of Manhattan, it has grown northward until it covers its 
entire extent, and is reaching beyond to the mainland. The island is located in 

north latitude forty degrees forty-two minutes, and west longitude, Greenwich, 

seventy-four degrees two minutes. It is thirteen and one-half miles in length, 

with an average width of about one mile, its greatest breadth, two and one-third 
miles, being on the line of Eighty-eighth street; and it covers an area of about 
fourteen thousand acres. On the east it is separated from Long Island by the 
Sound and by the East river, a kind of strait which connects the Sound with 
New York bay; and on the west is the estuary of the Hudson, which, as far up 
as Albany, is more properly an arm of the sea than a river. On the north it 

is separated from the mainland by a winding way of eight miles in length, called 
Harlem river at the east, and Spuyten Duyvil kill at the west. The East and 

North rivers meet at the southern extremity of Manhattan island, known as the 
Battery. 

The harbor is one of the most capacious in the world. The bay of New 
York stretches northward from Staten Island a distance of nine miles, and is large 

enough to float all the navies of the world. With Long Island on the east and 

Staten Island on the south, it is completely sheltered from the stormy Atlantic, 
and the shipping need neither break-water nor covering for their protection. The 
navigation is rarely impeded by ice, the bay being open even when the Chesapeake 
and Delaware bays are frozen over; but in 1780 and again in 1820 it was cov¬ 

ered by a solid bridge of ice. 

A continuous line of wooden quay-wall surrounds the city. The wharves are 
formed entirely of timber and earth, a row of wooden piles being driven, close to 
each other, into the bed of the river as a support and protection; and by the 

construction of numerous and cheap wooden jetties, which only need to be built 

out some forty or fifty feet in order to reach deep water, the accommodations are 

[408] 


CUSTOM HOUSE. NEW YORK CITY 


































































































THE PORT OF NEW YORK. 


409 


extended to meet the increasing demands of trade. Vessels of the largest class, 
moored to these quays, float during the low as well as high water in this mag¬ 
nificent land-locked bay, while the wealth of the continent is poured into their 
roomy holds, or they unload the treasures of other lands. 

The situation of New York is peculiarly favorable to the unlimited growth 
of the commerce of which it has become the center. Below Staten Island is the 

outer bay, which extends to a bar stretching from Long Island to Sandy Hook, 

a distance of only eighteen miles from the wharves of the city; and the time is 
thus very short between making land and mooring at the quay. The inner and 
outer bays are connected by a strait two miles in breadth between Staten Island 

and Long Island, called the Narrows, and on the west the inner bay communi¬ 

cates with Newark bay through the kills between Staten Island and Bergen Neck, 
New Jersey. The channel through the East river to the northward and eastward 
leads into Long Island Sound. The United States Government has expended, and 
is expending, millions of dollars to deepen the narrow pass at Hell Gate where the 
meeting of the tides makes navigation not only difficult but positively dangerous. 
Across the East river is thrown the Brooklyn bridge, a magnificent structure, with 
a river span of fifteen hundred and ninety-two feet, and land spans of nine hun¬ 
dred and eighteen hundred feet, respectively. The height of the bridge above 
the water is one hundred and thirty-five feet. 

At ebb tide there are on the outer bar twenty-one feet of water, which will 
float the largest class of merchant vessels. The rise of the tide is about six 
feet, and its influence is felt in the Hudson as far as Troy, a distance of one 
hundred and sixty miles. The tidal wave increases in its progress along the coast 
northward, till at length in the bay of Fundy it attains the maximum height of 
ninety feet. Toward the south, on the contrary, its rise is much less, being only 
eighteen inches in the Gulf of Mexico, while on the shores of one of the West 
India islands it is quite imperceptible. 

There are four channels over New York bar. The first is along and parallel 
to the Jersey shore. The second is the South channel. The third is the Main 
Ship channel. The fourth is Gedney’s channel, which has two feet more water 
than the other channels, but was unknown until some twenty-five or thirty years 
ago, when it was discovered by the United States Coast Survey. Had it been 
known in 1778, the French fleet under Count D’Estaing could have entered the 
bay and captured the British naval force, for it can be used by the largest ships 
of war. This channel runs west by north. The eastern entrance to the bay of 
New York is marked by the Fire Island Inlet light-house, which is the most 
important light to navigators bound for the harbor. There are other lights on 
the Long Island coast to Montauk point. On the New Jersey coasts there are 

52 









4io 


THE PORT OF NEW YORK. 


lights on the highlands of Neversink, and the Barneget light-house, the latter being 
equal in importance to the Fire Island light. 

The great arm of the sea not only stretches one hundred and fifty-four miles 
northward to Albany, but there is from this point a natural depression northward 
to Lake Champlain, and another westward to the basin of the Great Lakes, which 
with a few portages, were hundreds of years ago aboriginal routes of canoe 
navigation. The British plan of subjugating the colonies included the occupation 
of the ports of Quebec and New York, and the establishment of lines of water 
communication through Lake Champlain and the Mohawk valley. The maintenance 
of this communication would have severed New England from the middle and 
southern colonies. 

To-day the defenses of the harbor consist of Fort Schuyler and the Willett’s 
Point fort on the East river ; Fort Columbus, Castle William, South Battery and 
the Barbette Battery, on Governor’s island ; Fort Wood, on Bedloe’s island; Forts 
Hamilton, Tompkins and Lafayette, in the Narrows ; Fort Wadsworth, the Glacis 
Gun Battery, the Glacis Mortar Battery, Battery Hudson, South Mortar Battery, 
and the North and South Cliff Batteries, on Staten Island and the Fort at Sandy 
Hook. 

The port of New York had its origin in the commercial enterprise of the 
Dutch Republic — a Republic which was then in its strength and glory, carrying 
on an extensive commerce with the most enlightened nations of Europe, and whose 
navies were the rival of England. The Dutch Republic took an active part in 
the colonization of America about the middle of the seventeenth century, contrib¬ 
uting largely to her growth, wealth and prosperity. A spirit of commercial enter¬ 
prise was then prevailing not only in Holland, but in England, which was destined 
eventually to make the Port of New York famous all over the world. It was 
then that in this port the West India Company built up a large trade with the 
Indians, in furs; and with the Dutch Colonies in the West Indies, in various 
commodities, particularly breadstuffs, for which it was famous, as well as other 
products from Holland. In 1691, the year of the permanent institution of the Gen¬ 
eral Assembly by consent of the Crown of Great Britain, the merchants of the city 
represented that “by the navigation and traffic of New York (almost) the whole 
revenue for the support and maintenance of Their Majesties’ Government in the 
Province doth arise and grow, and altogether depends upon the same; ” and they 
petitioned against the importation to New York from Boston of European goods, 
and the exporting of home products to other Colonies, as injurious to the direct 
trade upon which the revenues depended. The following table, giving the general 
course of trade and the relation of New York thereto, will show to what extent 
these complaints were remedied: 


THE PORT OF NEW YORK. 


4“ 


YEARS. 

New England. 

New 

York. 

Pennsylvania. 

Maryland and Virginia. 

Carolina and Georgia 

Exports. 

Imports. 

Exports. 

Imports. 

Exports. 

Imports. 

Exports. 

Imports. 

Exports. 

Imports. 

1700, 

£41,486 

£ 91,918 

£ 17.567 

£ 49,410 

£4.608 

£18,529 

£ 317,302 

£ 173,481 

£14,058 

£11,003 

1703 . - 

33.539 

50,608 

7,471 

17,562 

5,160 

9.899 

144,928 

196,713 

13.197 

12,428 

1706, 

22,210 

57,050 

2,849 

31,588 

4,210 

11,037 

149.152 

58,015 

8,652 

4.001 

1707 . - 

38,793 

120,631 

14,283 

29,855 

786 

14.365 

207,625 

237,901 

23.311 

10,492 

1714 , 

51,541 

121,288 

29,810 

44,643 

2,663 

14.927 

280,470 

128,873 

31,290 

23,712 

1721, - 

50,483 

114,524 

15,681 

50,754 

8,037 

21,548 

357,812 

127,376 

61,858 

17,703 

1726, 

63,816 

200,882 

38,307 

84,866 

5.960 

57,634 

324,767 

185,981 

93,453 

43,934 

1730 , - 

54,701 

208,196 

8,740 

64,356 

10,582 

48,592 

346,823 

150,931 

151,739 

64,785 

1740 , 

72,389 

171,081 

21,498 

118,777 

15,048 

56,751 

341,997 

281,429 

266,484 

185,345 

1746, - 

38,612 

209,177 

8,841 

86,712 

15,779 

73,699 

419,371 

282,545 

76,897 

103,788 

1751 . 

63,2S7 

305,974 

42,363 

248,941 

23,870 

190,917 

460,085 

247,027 

245,846 

140,309 

1760, - 

37,802 

599.647 

21,125 

480,106 

22,754 

707,998 

504,451 

605,882 

174,967 

218,131 

1761, 

46,225 

334,225 

48,648 

289,570 

39 >! 7 o 

204,067 

455,083 

545,350 

258,766 

278,666 

1762, - 

41.733 

247,385 

58,882 

288,046 

38,091 

200,199 

415,709 

418,599 

188,117 

217,931 

I 7 f> 3 . 

74,815 

258,854 

52,998 

238,560 

38,228 

284,152 

642,294 

555 , 39 1 

296,835 

295,040 

1764, - 

88,157 

459,765 

53,697 

515,416 

36,258 

436,191 

559,508 

515,192 

373,052 

324,146 

1765 . 

145,819 

451,299 

54,959 

382,349 

25,148 

363,368 

505,671 

383,224 

420,101 

363,874 

1766, - 

141.733 

409,642 

67,020 

330,829 

26,851 

327,314 

461,693 

372,548 

346,661 

364,000 

1767 , 

128,207 

406,681 

61,422 

417,957 

37,641 

371,830 

437,926 

437.628 

430,883 

267,427 

1768, - 

148,375 

419,797 

87,115 

482,930 

59,404 

432,107 

406,048 

475,984 

550,511 

346,520 

1769, 

129,353 

207,992 

73,466 

74,918 

26,111 

199,906 

361,892 

488,362 

469,384 

364,940 

1770 , - 

148,011 

394,451 

69,882 

475 . 99 1 

28,109 

134,881 

435,094 

717,782 

342,439 

202,466 

1771 , 

150,381 

I,420,119 

95,875 

653,621 

31,615 

728,744 

577,848 

920,326 

484,121 

479,662 

1772 , - 

126,265 

824,830 

82,707 

343,970 

29,133 

507,909 

528,404 

793,910 

492,006 

542,016 

1773 . 

124,624 

527,055 

76,246 

289,214 

36,652 

426,448 

589,803 

328,904 

541,904 

407,791 

1774 . - 

112,248 

562,476 

80,008 

437.937 

69,611 

625,652 

612,030 

528,738 

499,949 

435,634 

1775 . 

116,588 

71,625 

187,018 

1,228 

175,962 

1,366 

758,356 

1,921 

682,826 

120,022 

1776 , - 

762 

55,050 

2,318 

" 

1,421 

365 

73,226 

“ ” ~ 

26,237 



It will be seen that while the trade of New York steadily increased, it was 
inferior in importance to the other Colonies. 

There were some exceptions to the general course of trade. There was occa¬ 
sionally a year in which the exports of some of the Southern Colonies were less 
than the imports, and there were fluctuations at the North; but, as a rule, the 
“balance of tr^de ” was heavily against the Northern Colonies and largely in favor 
of the Southern. In the year 1700, Great Britain exported to all parts of the 
world, in value, ,£7,621,058, and to the Colonies alone £343,828 in value. In 
1772, she exported to the Colonies, in value, £“1,979,416, having sought to increase 
it by means of severe legislation. The condition of New York midway between 
those years was set forth in a report of the Board of Trade and Plantations to 
Parliament: 

“They had no manufactures in the Province of New York that deserve men¬ 
tioning ; their trade consisted chiefly in furs, whalebone, oil, pitch, tar and provisions. 
* * * There is yearly imported into New York a very large quantity of 

the woolen manufactures of this Kingdom for their clothing, which they would be 
rendered incapable to pay for, and would be reduced to the necessity of making 
for themselves if they were prohibited from receiving from the foreign sugar 
Colonies the money, rum, molasses, cocoa, indigo, cotton, wool, etc., which they at 
present take in return for provisions, horses and lumber, the produce of that 
Province and of New Jersey.” 






























412 


THE PORT OF NEW YORK. 


During the colonial period the commerce of the city was under the care of 
two important societies. The Chamber of Commerce was founded on the 3rd of 
May, 1768; chartered on the 13th of March, 1770, and revived on the 13th of 
April, 1784, by an act of the Legislature confirming its charter. This institution 
established the rates of commissions; settled the laws and usages of trade; fixed 
the value of coins, and in other ways had charge of the mercantile interests of 
the port. The other association was the Marine Society, chartered April 12, 1770, 
and re-chartered by the Legislature in May, 1786. The business of this corpo¬ 
ration was to extend maritime knowledge, and to relieve masters of vessels and 
their children. 

The hostile legislation of the British Parliament, and the oppressive acts of 
the British Crown, led to a non-importation agreement, which * was adhered to very 
generally in New York, but broken in other Colonies, as will be seen by referring 
to the figures for 1769, given in the above table. The following table gives a 
summary of the commerce of the Colonies from 1700 to the Revolution: 


COLONIES. 

I7OO-I724. 

1725- 

1749 . 

X 750 -I 776 . 

Total. 

Exports. 

Imports. 

Exports. 

Imports. 

Exports. 

Imports. 

Exports 

Imports. 

Northern : 

New England, 
New York, 
Pennsyl vania, 

,£109,850 

403,387 

98,773 

£2,864,355 

1,003,881 

39.339 

£1,437,032 

440,8 I I 
322,091 

£4,774.547 

2,614,237 

680,475 

£2,287,723 

1,466,485 

983.778 

£11,240,554 

8,560,451 

8,325,249 

£3,834.605 

2,310,683 

1,404,642 

£18,879,456 

12,178,569 

9,045,063 

Total, - 

£612,010 

£3,907,575 

£2,199,934 

£8,069,259 

^ 4 , 737,986 

£28,126,254 

£7,549.930 

£40,103,088 

Southern ; 

Maryland and 
Virginia, - 
Carolina, - 
Georgia, 

£6,371,306 

848,723 

£3,539,187 

49,8x6 

£10,154,920 

3 , 795,257 

6,080 

£5,409,052 

2,355,461 

63,510 

£13,127,421 

8,031,794 

803,384 

£11,626,046 

6,196,257 

853-856 

£29,653.647 

12,675,774 

809,464 

£20.574,285 

8,601,533 

917,366 

Total, 

£7,220,029 

£3,589,002 

£13,956,257 

£7,828,023 

£21,962,599 

£18,676,159 

£43,138,885 

£30,093.184 

Aggregates, 

£7,832,039 

£7,496,577 

£16,156.191 

£15,897,282 

£26,700,585 

£46,802,413 

£50,688,815 

£70,196,272 


This heavy increase in imports, and comparatively slight increase in exports, 
during the last quarter of a century of British rule, emphasize the complaints of 
the Colonies, preceding the Revolution. Commerce was virtually suspended from 
the beginning of the war until the conclusion of peace. 

The following pen picture of the port of New York in the days of the 

Revolution, is drawn by a well known antiquarian : 

“ Broadway was then, as now, the ridge or back-bone of the lower end of 

the island. From it the land fell in easy slope to the East river, but to the 

westward a steep embankment, with occasional breaks, separated it from the Hud¬ 
son, presenting an appearance from the river not unlike that of the Brooklyn 
highlands within our own memory. The water-line on the East river, where the 
































































































































































































































































































THE PORT OF NEW YORK. 


4 i 3 


greater part of the shipping lay at this period (and a great depth of water was 
found at every pier) extended from Whitehall to the ship yards at the foot of 
Catherine street, a distance of one and one-half miles, passing in its easterly 
course Coenties slip or the Albany basin ; the great dock at the foot of Broad 
street; Cruger’s wharf, a broad, hard projection on the line of present Front 
street, with extending piers, and Burnet’s Key on the line of Water street, and 
running with numerous other irregularities and intersecting piers and slips, of 

which Coffee House slip and its extension, Murray’s wharf, at the foot of Wall 

street, Burling’s, Beekman’s and Peck slips were the most important. From the 
Fly market, at the foot of Maiden lane, a ferry communicated with Long Island. 
On the water line of the Hudson, extending from the Battery to the foot of 
Reade street, one and a half miles, there were no wharves below Little Queen 

(now Cedar) street, and but few and inconsiderable structures above, as far as 
Murray street. From the rear of the houses on Broadway, gardens were laid 
out on the slope, which extended in a sandy beach.” 

At the end of the Revolution the British Crown, in continuation of its policy 
of discrimination and by authority of Parliament, directed that all importations from 
the American States should either be in British vessels, or in vessels. of the par¬ 
ticular State from which the produce came; and it prohibited Americans from 

trading to the West Indies. This hostile action was rendered a practical nul¬ 
lity, however, by the action of the French Government, which issued a decree, 
in 1787, admitting American produce to France free, and placing American citi¬ 
zens on a commercial equality with citizens of France. Trade languished, neverthe¬ 
less, under the conflicting commercial regulations of the several States. There are 
no general statistics showing the total amount of American commerce during this 
period, but the Customs books of Great Britain give the following record of the 
trade between that country and the United States: 



1784. 

1785. 

1786. 1787. 

1788. 

1789. 

I 79°. 

Total. 

Imports, - 
Exports, 

£ 749.345 

3,679,467 

£893,594 

2,308,023 

£843,119 £893,637 

1,603,465 2,009,111 

£1,023,789 

1,886,142 

£1,050,198 

2,525,298 

£1,191,071 

3,431,778 

£6,644,753 

17,443,284 


The line “imports” shows the exports from this country to Great Britain, and 
the line “exports” shows the imports therefrom into this country. The average 
imports into this country from the 4th of March, 1789, to the 31st of December, 
1791, was $17,400,000; the imports from Great Britain alone, during the year 1790, 
according to the above table, was over $17,000,000. The average exports from 
1789 to 1791 was $6,337,347; and the exports to Great Britain alone, in 1790, 
was in value nearly $6,000,000. The entire commerce of the country from 1784 
to 1788, inclusive, would therefore be shown by adding to the above a slight per- 













4 l 4 


THE PORT OF NEW YORK. 


centage to represent the value of produce received from and sent to other foreign 
countries. 

There is a still brighter side to this period of our commercial history ; and 
that brighter side is reflected from the waters of the port of New York. As 

soon as the merchants, exiled by the war, had returned, they sought new avenues 
for the extension of commerce. In 1783 a ship was purchased, in association 
with their neighbors of Philadelphia, and dispatched to China, laden chiefly with 
ginseng, in exchange for tea and Chinese manufactures. This ship—the Empress 
of China , Captain John Green — sailed on the 22d of February, 1784. This was 
the first American venture in those distant seas. The vessel reached New York 

on her return on the 12th of May, 1785. The venture was one-half for the 
account of Robert Morris of Philadelphia, and the net profit was $30,727, over 

twenty per cent on a capital of $120,000. Other vessels followed; and as early 

as 1789 the United States had fifteen vessels, against the twenty-one ships of the 
East India Company, in the China seas; and in the six years from 1802 to 
1808, of £12,831,099 of value of bullion imported into India, ,£4,543,662 was 
from the United States; of £”22,970,672, the value of goods exported from India, 
£4,803,283 was to the United States. 

The Congress of the United States, on the 3d of February, 1781, passed 
an act recommending to the several States that they vest a power in Congress 
to levy, for the use of the United States, a duty of five per cent, ad valorem , 
at the time and place of importation, upon all goods, wares and merchandise of 
foreign growth and manufacture, to take general effect when the States should 
consent. On the 19th of March, 1781, the Legislature of New York passed 
such an act, but suspended its operation until all the States not prevented by 
war should do likewise. In thus acting, New York waived its settled opinion 
and its undoubted interest for the benefit of the whole country. On the 15th of 
March, 1783, the Legislature repealed the act, because the Legislatures of several 

of the States had passed laws “ dissimilar to the true intent and meaning of the 
act of 1781.” A new act was passed granting to Congress a duty of five per 
cent, ad valorem , as in the preceding act ; but it was ordered that the duties should 
be levied and collected by officers under the authority of the State. The mer¬ 
chants of New York protested against this; and on the motion of Isaac Moses, 
the Chamber of Commerce memorialized the Legislature to abandon the system 

of ad valorem duties, which opened every man’s business to the inspection of 
his neighbors, and to adopt instead a specific tariff. The Legislature listened to 

this petition, and on the 18th of November, 1784, passed an act laying specific 

duties and establishing a custom-house. Colonel Lamb was appointed the first 
collector of the port of New York. The Convention which acted upon the Fed- 


THE PORT OF NEW YORK. 


4i5 


eral Constitution was long in session, and its action was for some time doubtful ; 
but the voice of the State was finally cast in favor of giving up its preference 
for specific duties and surrendering the control of the customs-revenue to the Gen¬ 
eral Government. 

The departments of immigration and quarantine are still controlled by the 
State, and it also regulates the shipping when in the harbor. The United States 
Collection District of New York extends up the Hudson to Albany, and all 
intermediate places on the river are included with it in the Port of New York. 
Piloting is under the supervision of a Board of Commissioners of Pilots, appointed 
by authority of the State, but when vessels are within the harbor they are stationed 
by the Harbor-Masters. The Captain of the Port has general charge of ves¬ 
sels and their cargoes. He is assisted by a Board of nine Port Wardens, three 
of whom must be nautical men. These officers examine the vessels and their 
cargoes, and are empowered to settle all questions with regard to their condition. 
Two special Wardens are also authorized to be appointed to reside at quarantine. 
The Captain of the Port, Port Wardens and Harbor-Masters, of whom also there 
are nine, are appointed by the Governor and Senate, and are allowed fees in 
compensation for their services. 

The Federal Union was formed, primarily, to secure a common commercial 
policy; and it was effected at a very opportune moment. The wars in Europe, 
which began in 1793, threw into the hands of Americans a large portion of the 

carrying trade of the world, and even English merchants were forced to conduct 

their West India trade in American vessels. This period, closing with the year 
1807; effected a revolution in the commercial relation of New York to her sister 
States in the Union. At the close of the Revolution, Philadelphia had a popula¬ 
tion of forty thousand, and Boston twenty thousand, while New York had only 
about thirteen thousand, and was still suffering from the fire and from the effects 
of armed occupation by the British. This, however, was not to last long. While, 
in the amount of exports, New York was exceeded in 1791 by Pennsylvania, Vir¬ 
ginia, South Carolina and Massachusetts, in the order named; in 1792, by Penn¬ 
sylvania, Virginia, Massachusetts and Maryland; and in 1793, by Pennsylvania, 

Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina and Virginia — she was exceeded in 1794 
by Pennsylvania and Maryland only, Massachusetts, South Carolina and Virginia 
ranking next; in 1795 and 1796 by Pennsylvania alone, and in 1797 she took, 
and has since held, the first rank among commercial States. 

From 1796 to 1807, the value of domestic produce exported from all the ports 
in the United States was $464,319,977; the value of foreign produce re-exported 
was $476,273,051. During the same period, the value of the imports was 

$1,120,551,696. These figures show that of the total importations only $644,278,645 


416 


THE PORT OF NEW YORK. 


were for home consumption. The statistics are not available for determining the 
exact proportion of domestic and foreign products exported from the port of New 
York, but we are not without data from which to make a reasonable estimate. 
In 1794 the exports nearly doubled, and in 1795 they again nearly doubled; from 
which time they maintained a steady increase. The total exports from the port 
of New York from the 4th of March, 1789, to the 31st of December, 1807, were, 
in value, $227,028,809; of which amount it may be reasonably estimated that 

$126,510,560 represented re-exports; or an average of about $6,000,000 a year of 
domestic exports. American shipping was built up during this period ; and of the 
total registered tonnage, by far the larger proportion was registered from New York. 

The total imports into the United States, as estimated, declined from 

$138,500,000 in 1807 to $56,990,000 in 1808; and the exports from $108,343,150 
to $22,130,960. The decline of exports in New York was from $26,359,963 to 
$5,606,058, of which latter amount $2,362,438 was domestic, and $3,143,620 foreign 
produce. 

This decline resulted from hostile legislation, orders and decrees, by foreign 
governments, resorted to for the avowed purpose of preventing the threatened 

supremacy of American commerce. The result was to reduce the foreign carrying 

trade of New York, which was nearly $16,500,000 in value of produce carried in 
1807, to only a little over $3,250,000 the succeeding year. 

The year which witnessed the culmination of American commerce on the seas, 
in the first half of the nineteenth century, also saw the beginning of a revolution, 
the sweep of which was to carry it to a point of development not then dreamed 
of, even in the imaginations of the most enthusiastic believers in the imperial 
destinies of New York. 

As early as 1768 Sir Henry Moore, Governor, directed the attention of the 
General Assembly of the Colony to “ the great inconvenience and delay attending 
the transportation of goods at the carrying places on the Mohawk river between 
Schenectady and Fort Stanwix,” and he remarked that “ the difficulty could easily 
be removed by sluices, upon the plan of those on the great canal of Languedoc, 
in France.” Years before, Philip Schuyler had conceived the same project, and 
he cast his great influence after the Revolution to the organizing of companies 
having this purpose in view, and to the practical inauguration of the project. In 
1807, in his speech to the Legislature, Governor Lewis dwelt upon the necessity 
for the improvement of roads and navigable streams, in order to facilitate internal 
commerce and enable the city of New York to distance Philadelphia in the race 
for commercial supremacy; evidently being of opinion that internal commerce is 
the basis of external trade. While at the close of the Revolution there was 
only an Indian trail through the wilderness from the Mohawk to the lakes, immi- 



PRESIDENT OF THE NEW YORK PRODUCE EXCHANGE. 







THE PORT OF NEW YORK. 


4i7 


gration had begun, and the demand was strong for the improvement of the great 
carrying route which was the forerunner of the Erie canal. 

In connection with this progressive movement, there was another of the greatest 

importance in the utilizing of the great highway of navigation, the Hudson river. 

On the 19th of March, 1787, the Legislature passed an act granting to John 

Pitch, a watchmaker of Philadelphia, who had launched a steamboat on the waters 

of the Delaware, the exclusive right for fourteen years of making and using every 

kind of boat or vessel impelled by steam in the waters of the Hudson. In 1791, 

the renowned Colonel John Stevens of Hoboken, commenced his experiments in 
# # • 

steam navigation, and in 1791, he constructed a steamboat. He had associated 
with him two engineers, Nesbitt and Brunei, and the Hon. Robert R. Livingston, 
Chancellor of the State of New York. The latter thereupon secured from the 
Legislature of the State, March 27, 1798, the exclusive right, for twenty years, to 
navigate the waters of the Commonwealth by vessels propelled by steam, provided 
that, within a year, he produced a boat capable of going three miles per hour. 

I his was not done; but it led to most important results. The Chancellor, in 
1801, was appointed Minister to France. The same year, in the harbor of Brest, 
he met Robert Fulton, where he was engaged in exhibiting to a commission 
appointed by Napoleon, the torpedoes of his invention, and with which he blew up 
a small shallop in the waters of the harbor. Fitch used a paddle-oar in the 
steamboat he designed, while Fulton had long been of opinion that a paddle-wheel 
would be successful. He so informed Livingston, who accordingly secured from 
the Legislature, in 1803, an act conferring upon Fulton and himself the exclusive 
right, for twenty years, to construct and run, in the waters of the State, vessels 
propelled by steam; and Fulton transferred his experiments to the Hudson. In 
his voyage from New York to Albany, on the 7th of August, 1807, Fulton made 

the first successful application of steam to navigation; and a fortnight later, being 

excluded from the waters of New York, Stevens launched a vessel on the Delaware, 
and the following year, was the first to venture upon the ocean in a steam vessel. 
Fulton’s boat, while being built, was frequently the object of ridicule and was deri¬ 
sively termed “the Chancellor’s hobby;” but, nevertheless, he made the upward 
trip in thirty-two hours, returning in thirty, the latter time being at the rate of 
five miles an hour.* 

The steamers next built, in their order, were: The Car of Neptune , in 1808; 

The Paragon , in 1811; and The Richmond , in 1812; all constructed in New York. 


* The Clermont made its first trip as a packet in September, and a certificate with regard thereto was signed on 
the 5th of that month by Selah Strong, G. H. Van Waganen, John Q. Wilson, John P. Anthony, Dennis H. Doyle, 
George Wetmore, William S. Hick, J. Bowman, J. Crane, James Branden, Stephen N. Bowen. 

53 





418 


THE PORT OF NEW YORK. 


In 1811, steam power was first used on railroads, and in 1812, on the Clyde, steam 
vessels were first used in Europe. In 1813, an advertisement of Hudson River 
steamboats announced The Car of Neptune, Captain Roorbach; The Paragon, Cap¬ 
tain Wiswell; and The North River, Captain Bartholemew — Fare $7. The same 
year, on the 9th of April, rates of wharfage were established by the Legislature 
for the port of New York, which continued unchanged for many years thereafter. 
In 1854, Comptroller Flagg estimated the interest of the city in the wharves, 

bulk-heads and piers at $3,258,000—$1,829,000 on the East river, and $1,429,000 

on the North river — and complained that the entire receipts for 1853 were only 
$127,000, for the reason that after expending $37,000 in repairs, only $90,000 had 
been left as profit, which was very poor interest on so large an estate. To-day, 

however, it is deemed wise policy not to make any profit out of any sort of 

taxation upon commerce. 

Steam came into general use for the coasting trade after the success of Fulton 
and of Livingston’s “hobby;” but the exclusive grant to them was followed by 
prolonged and expensive litigation, resulting, in 1831, in a decision that the Fed¬ 
eral Government had jurisdiction over the waters of the river, and it accordingly 
assumed the expense of improving navigation. Between 1797 and 1833 the State 

expended, above and below Albany, $215,707.15, to which it added small sums 
thereafter, making the total in 1858 $225,565.21. Between 1845 and 1852 the 

cities of Troy and Albany appropriated several thousand dollars, and from 1834 to 
1838 the Federal Government expended $370,000, subsequently reserving the cost 

of dredging, and in addition expending thereon, prior to 1858, the sum of $46,291.78, 
when the work again devolved upon the State. The State of New York expended 
nearly $98,000,000 on its canals between the years 1817 and 1866. The United 
States Government had expended, down to June 30, 1882, $9,500,000 for the 

improvement of the rivers and harbors of New York. Of this amount, $1,000,000 
was for the Hudson river; $3,000,000 for the port of New York; and $5,500,000 
for harbors on the lakes along the northern border. 

The introduction of steam upon the river made no difference with the move¬ 
ment of produce for a long time. In 1817, when it cost $30 to move a ton of 

merchandise from Buffalo to Montreal, and from $60 to $75 to move a ton on 
the return trip, it cost $100 to move a ton from Buffalo to New York, and the 
ordinary length of passage was twenty days. Indeed, while stages gave the appear¬ 
ance of haste with their relays of horses, and batteaux thought it all right to 
consume two or three days on the Mohawk, sloops would sometimes consume a 
fortnight between Albany and New York. In 1822, while there were only twenty- 
two sailing vessels on the Hudson, they were suffered to do all the freight busi¬ 
ness, the steamers carrying only passengers. 


THE PORT OF NEW YORK. 


419 


Freighting was still worse on the ocean. The first steamer to cross the 
Atlantic was the Savannah , Captain Moses Rogers. This vessel was built in 

New York in 1818, made trips successively to Savannah and Charleston, and on 
the 19th of June started for Liverpool, where it arrived [uly 15, and was regarded 
with astonishment. It was nineteen years later, however, before another steamer 
crossed the Atlantic; and thirty years before steam was used to any extent in 
ocean freights. 

With the completion of the Erie canal, however, a new era dawned. From 

1807 to 1825, the exports of New York were principally of domestic products. 
Not only did the construction of the canal maintain domestic exports in steadily 
increasing volume, but, by thus increasing the commercial importance of New York, 
it attracted thereto foreign produce for exchange and re-export; in which particular 
branch of commerce the port had been exceeded by Boston, as in the coasting 
trade it had been exceeded by Philadelphia. From that time forward, the increase 
in the value of foreign products re-exported, relatively to the exports of domestic 
produce, was for some years the greater. In 1832 some English capitalists visited 
New York, and proposed to open between that city and Liverpool, a line of ocean 
steamers. The proposition met with favor, but its execution was postponed by the 
stringency which resulted in the revulsion of 1837; however it was carried into 
effect when, on the 5th of April, 1838, the Sirius left Cork, and the Great Western 
Bristol, arriving in New York on the 23d — thus successfully inaugurating steam 
navigation on the ocean. 

For some years after the beginning of railroad construction, New York was 
limited in its internal trade to the advantages of canal and river. This was owing 
to two causes. In the first place, it was deemed difficult to build a railroad to 
New York city.* In the second place, the Legislature favored the canals, and 

either prohibited competing lines from carrying freight, or required them to pay 

tolls thereon into the treasury. The latest returns—1882 — show that the total 

tonnage over the Erie canal for the previous year was three million six hundred 

and ninety-four thousand three hundred and sixty-four tons, while on the New 
York Central railroad it was eleven million three hundred and thirty thousand 

three hundred and ninety-three tons, and on the New York, Lake Erie and 

Western railroad it was eleven million eight hundred and ninety-five thousand two 
hundred and thirty-eight tons. 


*In 1842, the lines of railroad terminating at various points on the sea-coast, were as follows; New York, twelve; 
Brooklyn, forty; Amboy, sixty-one; Jersey City, one hundred and nineteen; Piermont, forty-six; Boston, seven hundred 
and twenty; Philadelphia, three hundred and sixty-nine; Charleston, three hundred and twelve; Baltimore, three hun¬ 
dred ; Richmond and Petersburg, two hundred and eighty-seven; Wilmington, one hundred and sixty-two; Savannah, 
one hundred and thirty-seven; Norfolk, seventy-eight; Bridgeport, seventy-three; Norwich, fifty-eight: Stonington. forty- 
seven; Providence, forty-one; New Haven, forty-one. 



420 


THE PORT OF NEW YORK. 


In the history of the port of New York, relatively to the other ports of entry 
in the United States, this was an epoch of remarkable growth. In 1827, of the 
total duties on imports collected in the ports of the United States, sixty-seven 
per cent were collected in the port of New York; in 1833, eighty-two per cent 
were collected at that port. In 1845, the travel on the Hudson river was esti¬ 
mated at one million two hundred thousand persons; and yet this large number, 

was only half the number of passengers the same year, on all the railroads cen¬ 

tering in Boston. In 1848, the number of sailing vessels on the Hudson had 
increased to six hundred and fifteen, and in 1850 to six hundred and sixty-seven, 
while in 1852, they dropped to five hundred and sixty-nine. The great bulk of 

the freight business, was now done by barges and steamers; the number of barges 
having increased from one hundred and fifteen in 1848, to one hundred and eighty- 
one in 1852, while of steamers there were thirty-six in 1848, forty-two in 1851, and 
thirty-nine in 1852. This epoch, in the commercial history of the port of New 

York, closed with the construction of through lines of railroad thereto, and the 
removal of restrictions upon the carrying of freights by railroads. In this connec¬ 
tion it is interesting to note that, since 1868, the average freight charges per 
bushel for wheat from Chicago to New York have fallen as follows: by lake and 
canal, from twenty-five and three-tenths cents to eight and six-tenths cents; by 
lake and rail, from twenty-nine cents to ten and four-tenths cents; by all rail 
throughout the year, from forty-two and six-tenths cents to fourteen and four-tenths 
cents. 

The facilities for transportation were, in earlier years, too meager to meet the 
wants of a rapidly-growing country. The extension of the railroad system of the 
State and of its western extensions, gave such an impetus to the export of domestic 
produce as to cause a constantly increasing disproportion between domestic and 
foreign exports. Prior to the civil war, however, with the exception of two years, 
the domestic exports of the port of New York did not exceed $100,000,000. In 

1861, the excess was $230,000,000. As early as June in that year, the London 
Times called attention to the fact, that England was receiving from New York 
enormous quantities of breadstuffs. There was another remarkable development, 
incident to the war and growing out of a suspension of importations. P'or years, 
London had acted as banker for America, in her transactions with the East. Now, 
there was a remarkable suspension of American orders to China and India, and 
England was compelled to pay for her breadstuffs in gold. This increase of 

exports and influx of gold, reduced the price of money to the lowest rate of inter¬ 
est, and yet so intense was the panic caused by the war, and so great the falling 
off in importations that thousands of merchants were ruined, and banks suspended 

specie payments. The demand for breadstuffs was occasioned by droughts in 









PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE AND TRANSPORTATION, NEW YORK CITY. 





THE PORT OF NEW YORK. 


421 

Europe; and it was very fortunate that the year happened to be one of those 
rare occasions, in which a short supply abroad is met by bountiful harvests at home. 
It was also fortunate, that the enlargement of the canal had been completed in 

season to move the produce, for then the railroads were unable to meet the 
demand for transportation. The improvement, however, was limited to New York. 
The exports reported for the South, were about $170,000,000 less than in i860, but 
the aggregate reduction was only $145,000,000, showing a net gain of $15,000,000 
for the remaining ports; while at the port of New York alone there was a gain 
of $17,000,000. The following year, 1862, the crops in Europe were injured by 
heavy rains in England, and a drought in Russia; and the exports from the northern 
ports showed another gratifying gain, almost exclusively, however, from the port 
of New York. Thereafter, the increase was remarkable. In 1864, the value of 

domestic products exported from New York, slightly exceeded $200,000,000. 

The customs books of the English Government show, that from 1854 to 

1864, inclusive, the value of British products exported to the United States was 
£2 16,277,247; while the value of American products imported into England was 
^ 353 ,110,045. 

In 1871, the value of domestic produce exported from the port of New York, 
again exceeded $200,000,000. From .1871 to 1877 they varied in value from 
$225,000,000 to $290,000,000; in 1878, they were in value, $340,000,000; and in 
1880, they exceeded in value $400,000,000. This improvement in the values of 
domestic exports, has followed the reduction of tolls on the. canals and of freight 
tariffs on railroads. The following table will show the changes in the character 
of the domestic exports of the country: 



l82I. 

i860. 

1862. 

1866. 

1878. 

1879. 

1880. 

1881. 

Bread and bread- 
stuffs, - 
Cotton, raw, - 
Provisions, 
Mineral oil, - 
Tobacco, - 

$5,184,999 

20,157484 

53,246,817 

5,798,045 

$24,422,310 

191,806.555 

16,612,443 

19.289.975 

$84,183,754 

1,180,113 

34,686,292 

1,539,027 

13,402,000 

$41,249,054 

281,385,223 

29,503,996 

24,830,887 

31,438,561 

$181,777,841 

180,031,484 

123,564,202 

46.574.974 

28484,482 

$210,355,528 

162,304,250 

116,858,650 

40,305,249 

28,215,240 

$288,036,835 

211,535,905 

127,043,242 

36,218,625 

18,442,273 

$270,332,519 

247.695.746 

151,528,216 

40,315,609 

20,878,884 


The total amount of duties collected on imported merchandise entered for 
consumption, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1881, was $193,800,879.97, of which 
$136,211,127.38, or over seventy per cent, was collected at the port of New York. 
This port is, indeed, the great center of trade of the world,— the great international 
distributing point. The shipping, however, is foreign, not American. In 1856 
seventy-five per cent of the tonnage was American; in 1881, only sixteen per cent. 
It is estimated, that during the war, at least one thousand American vessels sailed 
under foreign flags. The average American tonnage from 1854 to 1862, engaged 
in the foreign trade, as registered, was about two and a quarter millions of tons; 






















422 


THE PORT OF NEW YORK. 


now it is about one and a quarter millions. This decrease represents the total 
decrease in the American merchant marine, which is now four millions of tons 
as against five millions thirty-five years ago. The total tonnage of the vessels 
entering the ports of the United States for the year ending June 30, 1881, was 
fifteen million six hundred and thirty thousand five hundred and forty-one, of which 
eight million four hundred and fifty-seven thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven 
was British, and only two million nine hundred and nineteen thousand one hundred 
and forty-nine, American. The number of vessels entering the port of New York, 
was seven thousand one hundred and. fifty-seven, having a tonnage of seven million 
five hundred and six thousand nine hundred and twenty-two; cleared, six thousand 
nine hundred and twenty-seven, with a tonnage of seven million five hundred and 
thirteen thousand six hundred and eight. In 1882 the arrivals of foreign vessels 
at New York numbered six thousand four hundred and seventy-six, a smaller number 
than for several years previously. Of these, two thousand six hundred and thirty- 
three were British ; one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight, American ; five 
hundred and thirty-four, German ; four hundred and thirteen, Norwegian ; three 
hundred and nine, Italian; one hundred and thirty-one, Austrian; one hundred 
and eight, French; and one each from Venezuela, Siberia and Greece. The 
number of coast-wise vessels was three thousand nine hundred and sixty-eight, 
a larger number than for any year since 1877. In 1793, the entries from foreign 
ports were six hundred and eighty-three, and one thousand three hundred and 
eighty-one vessels were engaged in the coasting trade. 

The balance of trade has averaged largely in favor of the United States, 
of late years, as the following table will show: 


TRADE. 

1878. 

1879. 

1880. 

1881. 

Total. 

Total exports, .... 

Imports, merchandise, 

$737,155.6” 

431.S12.583 

$765,159,825 

513,745,748 

$889,680,149 
696,805,867 

$S33.547,723 

670,199,654 

$3,225,543,308 

2,312,563,852 

Balance, ..... 

$305,343,023 

$251,414,077 

$192,874,282 

$163,348,069 

$912,979,456 


The very latest reports, however, show that for the year 1882 there was a 
decrease of more than $150,000,000 in the value of domestic merchandise exported, 
a result that was owing to the decreased quantities of cotton, breadstuffs and 
provisions that were sent abroad. Since 1820 the percentage of the exports of 
agriculture has ranged from seventy-two one-hundredths to eighty-three one-hun¬ 
dredths of the total. The imports for 1882 were greater in value than ever 
before, exceeding the total of 1881 by $81,000,000, a fact that is explained by 
increased values rather than by a proportionate increase in quantities. The British 
dominions took sixty-three and one-half per cent of our exports, and returned 
thirty-nine per cent of our imports. 



















THE PORT OF NEW YORK. 


423 


The business of the port of New York has, for many years, exceeded the 
combined trade of all the other ports of the United States. The following state¬ 
ment shows the foreign carrying trade of all the ports of the United States, and 
of the port of New York, separately, for the year ending June 30, 1881 : 


TRADE. 

All United States Ports. 

Port of New York. 

American. 

Foreign. 

Land vehicles. 

Total. 

American. 

Foreign. 

Land vehicles. 

Total. 


Imports, 

Domestic 

$146,089,664 

$ 5 S 7 . 647.535 

$19,502,926 

$753,240,125 

$74,996,289 

$460,752,362 

$5,167 

$ 535 , 753,818 

exports, 

116,636,578 

775,409,655 

6,106,658 

898,152,891 

45,487,498 

356,817,592 

- 

402 , 305,090 

Re-exports, 

5 . 354.361 

15,498,827 

2,778,114 

23,131,302 

1,766.937 

12,869,800 

1,793,261 

16,429,998 

Totals, - 

$268,080,603 

$ 1 , 378 , 556,017 

$28,387,698 

$1,675,024,318 

$122,250,724 

$830,439,754 

$1,798,428 

$954,488,906 


In the year 1882 of all the merchandise exported from the United States, 
forty-five and nine-tenths per cent left the port of New York ; and of all the 
imports, sixty-eight per cent arrived at that port. Nearly fifty-seven per cent of 
the total foreign commerce of the country was done upon the wharves of Man¬ 
hattan ; while at that port almost seventy per cent of the duties on imports were 
paid to the government of the United States. It need not be wondered at, 
therefore, that New Yorkers are proud not only of the beauty of their harbor, 
but also of the immense commercial importance of the port of New York. 


CHESTER S. COLE, 

O F Corning, Captain of the Port of New York, was born July 1, 1836, in 
Wirt, Allegany county, New York. His father, of English descent, was born 
in Otsego county; his mother, of Scotch ancestry, was born in Vermont. Although 
he had not the advantages of a collegiate education, he enjoyed the privileges 
which the common schools afforded, and early manifested great business capacity. 
From 1854 to 1862 he was a railroad conductor. He has held many offices of 
honor and trust. In 1865 and in 1874 he was President of the village of Corning. 
From 1869 to 1872 he was Assessor of Internal Revenue for the Twenty-seventh 
District of New York. In 1870 he was member of the Republican State Com¬ 
mittee, and in 1880 he was delegate to the Republican National Convention, held 
in Chicago. He is now engaged in general insurance business, and is Secretary 
of the Corning Gas Company. 





























WILLIAM M. SMITH, M. D., 

O F Angelica, Health Officer of the Port of New York, was born in Paterson, 
New Jersey, July 18, 1826, of English and Dutch descent. After obtaining 
his academic education at Middlebury Academy and Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, he 
taught school lor a time, and then studied medicine with Hon. C. C. Chaffee, M. D., 
now of Springfield, Massachusetts. He completed his studies at Castleton Medical 
College, graduating in 1846. For five years he practiced at Short Tract, Allegany 
county, and then spent two years in Cayuga county, in partnership with William 
F. Cooper, M. D. Eager to make the highest possible attainment in the science 
and practice of medicine, he went to New York city, for experience in hospital 
and dispensary; returning to his home in Allegany county in 1854, where he 
resumed the practice of his profession, in which he has attained a high reputation. 
He was elected to the State Assembly in 1856, re-elected in 1859, an d sent as dele¬ 
gate to the Republican National Convention of i860. Dr. Smith organized a com¬ 
pany of volunteers in 1861, and in October was commissioned Surgeon of the 
Eighty-fifth New York State Volunteers, and was detailed as member of the Board 
of Medical Examiners, at Washington, during the following winter. He was Acting 
Brigade Surgeon of Palmer’s Brigade, Casey’s Division, Army of the Potomac, dur¬ 
ing McClellan’s campaign in Virginia, and was afterward transferred with his regi¬ 
ment to North Carolina. He participated in the battles of Yorktown, Williamsburg, 
Savage Station, Fair Oaks, Seven Pines, and the battles before Richmond, and 
afterward was in the engagements at Suffolk and Franklin, in Virginia, and King¬ 
ston, White Hall and Goldsborough, in North Carolina. During the spring and 
summer of 1863 he had charge of the Post Hospital, at Plymouth, North Carolina. 
He resigned his commission in the fall of 1863, and resumed his practice at 
Angelica. In December, 1872, Dr. Smith was appointed Surgeon-General of the 
State of New York with rank of Brigadier-General, on the Staff of Governor Dix. 
In 1876 he was elected delegate from the Twenty-seventh Congressional District to 
the Republican National Convention at Cincinnati. In 1880 he was commissioned 
by Governor Cornell Health Officer of the Port of New York, and since that time 
has been fulfilling the duties of the position with an eminent degree of ability. 

[424] 












































r 


QUARANTINE. 


Bv I)k. WILLIAM M. SMITH, Health Officer of the Port. 


jIN no other port in the world is the danger so great from contagious and 
infectious disease as in the port of New York. As early as 1647 a malignant 
infectious fever, now known as yellow fever, prevailed in some of the West India 
islands. This disease excited the apprehension of the authorities in New York at 
that time, as shown by several acts of the Council, designed to prevent the intro¬ 
duction of this disease and of small-pox through the port of New York. In 1702, 

yellow fever first appeared in New York, and was the occasion for a proclamation 
directing that a solemn fast be observed “ to divert Almighty God’s present and 
impending judgments.” An order of His Majesty’s Council was issued in 1714, 
directing that vessels from Jamaica should quarantine at Staten Island, and in 1716 
this order was extended to all vessels from the West Indies. The first quarantine 

law, other than acts of the Council, was passed by the Colonial Legislature of 1755. 

It provided that “All vessels having the small-pox, yellow fever or other contagious 
distempers on board, and all persons, goods, merchandise whatsoever, coming or 
imported in such vessels from any place infected with such distempers, shall not 
enter ports or harbors or nearer than the land commonly called Bedloe’s Island.” 
Notwithstanding these enactments, many years elapsed before a rigid quarantine 
was established at the port of New York. 

In 1804, an act of the Legislature was passed, which declared that “no vessel 
from an infected port should come within three hundred feet of the wharves of 
the city.” And in 1806, an act was passed, which compelled vessels from the 
West Indies and the Mississippi to a detention in quarantine of four days before 
going to the wharves of the city. Previous to 1811 the Governor of the State 
designated, by proclamation, the ports from which vessels were to be subjected to 
quarantine. Existing records show that previous to this time New York had 
experienced seventeen visitations of yellow fever; but not until 1822 did it again 
suffer from an epidemic of any contagious or infectious disease. The “ growth of 
the New York Quarantine from inefficient beginnings” to a model system is well 

54 


1 


426 


QUARANTINE. 


illustrated by a more particular reference to the legislation upon the subject. The 
law of 1755 established quarantine at “ Bedloe’s Island or such other place or 
places for such time and in such manner as the Governor or Commander-in-Chief, 
by and with the advice of His Majesty’s Council, shall deem proper and reasonable 
to direct and appoint,” etc. In 1784 the law was substantially re-enacted, with 

the additional provision that in the absence of the Governor “quarantine shall be 

performed as the Mayor of the city may direct.” It also authorized the Governor 
to appoint a physician with prescribed powers and privileges. The Legislature of 
1796 authorized the appointment of seven Commissioners and a Health Officer, 
and the location of a quarantine hospital on Governor’s Island. 

The fatal character of the epidemic of yellow fever which prevailed in New 

York city in 1798, induced a feeling of apprehension among the people of the city, 
arising from the proximity of the quarantine hospital at Governor’s Island, which 
resulted in the passage of an act the following year, 1799, authorizing the Commis¬ 
sioners and resident physician of the marine hospital to purchase a site on Staten 
Island for a boarding station and marine hospital. Tompkinsville, Staten Island, 

was selected as the location for the new quarantine. Here extensive and commo¬ 
dious structures were erected by the State, including hospitals and residences for 
the quarantine officials. For nearly sixty years this continued to be the boarding 
station, and the location of the hospitals for the reception and treatment of all 
contagious and infectious diseases. Soon after the occupation of the new quarantine, 
vessels with cargoes from infected ports were restrained from approach to the 
wharves of the city until properly cleansed and disinfected. 

The act of the Legislature of 1784, which gave the Governor of the State 
the power to appoint a physician to examine vessels from infected ports, who was 
subsequently known as the “ Health Officer of the Port,” has continued in force 
to the present time. In 1801, a law was passed constituting the Health Officer 

of the Port, the Physician of the marine hospital, and the Health Commissioners 

a Board of Health for New York city. While the composition of the present 
Board of Health for New York city is otherwise entirely changed, the Health 
Officer of the Port continues to be, ex officio , a member of the Board. The 
epidemic of yellow fever which prevailed in New York city in 1803 seems to have 
stimulated the authorities to further action. The following year the Legislature 
declared that “ no vessel from an infected port should be permitted to approach 

within three hundred feet of the wharves of the cityand the singular and unwise 
law which required the Governor to declare by proclamation, the ports from which 
vessels should be subjected to quarantine, was superseded by the following: “All 
vessels from Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean, and from the Bermudas, Bahamas 
and the West Indies and any port south of Georgia, and all others having forty 


QUARANTINE. 


427 


or more passengers on board, or having had sickness or death while in port or 
on the passage, shall be subject to quarantine.” 

The true character of yellow fever seems at this period to have been fully 
recognized. Its infectious, rather than its contagious character, was considered and 
understood, and for a long period New York was wholly exempt from its ravages. 
The yellow fever that prevailed in New York in 1822, and again in 1848, was 
attributed to the too close proximity of the quarantine at Tompkinsville to the 
populous cities on the opposite shores of the bay. Under the stimulus of this 
impression, the Legislature of 1849 determined to remove the quarantine from 
Staten Island to Sandy Hook, within the territorial jurisdiction of the State of New 
Jersey, but were unable to purchase a site. The summer of 1856 was marked by 
one of the most formidable invasions of yellow fever known for many years. 
Nearly three hundred cases, attended by great fatality, occurred on the Long Island 
shore in the neighborhood of Bay Ridge and Fort Hamilton; while the inhabitants 
of the eastern shores of Staten Island, particularly in the vicinity of the quaran¬ 
tine at Tompkinsville, suffered scarcely less. The following year, Commissioners 
appointed by the Legislature selected a location at Seguine’s Point, situated at the 
southern extremity of Staten Island, and commenced the erection of buildings suit¬ 
able for hospital and quarantine purposes. 

Many changes in the laws regulating quarantine were made by the Legisla¬ 
ture of 1857. The Commissioners of Emigration, hitherto the custodians of the 
State property, were succeeded by three Commissioners of Quarantine, who were 
appointed by the Governor, with the approval of the Senate. The new Commis¬ 
sioners, Horatio Seymour, John C. Green and George W. Patterson, were appointed 
by the Governor in 1859 ; the same year, the system of hospital ships was adopted, 
and the ship Falcon was purchased, and located in the lower bay, where it served 
both as hospital and boarding station until 1869. The United States steamer 
Illinois was obtained from the General Government as a quarantine of observation 
for immigrant passengers. 

In April, 1866, the United States ships Saratoga and Portsmouth were obtained 
for the same purpose, but were returned to the Government a few months later. 
The management of these floating hospitals and quarantines of observation was 
under the immediate supervision of Dr. Elisha Harris, the present Secretary of 
the State Board of Health. 

The Secretary of the Treasury, in a communication to the Special Commis¬ 
sioners appointed by the Governor, took the ground that Congress ought to make 
an appropriation for the erection of suitable hospitals and buildings for quarantine 
purposes, “upon condition of a cession of land by the State of New York.” Influ¬ 
enced by this suggestion, and the recommendation of the State Commissioners, a 


428 


QUARANTINE. 


cession of lands under water was made by the State Legislature to the United 

States by act of March 15, 1865, to be located either at “West Bank,” in the 

lower bay, or Orchard Shoals, upon which to erect hospitals and warehouses for 
infected goods. No appropriation, however, was made by Congress. Special Com¬ 
missioners, under authority granted by the Legislature, were appointed and author¬ 
ized to select a location. The shoals at “West Bank” were selected, and the 
construction of an artificial island was commenced early in 1867, and completed in 
the latter part of the year 1869. This is named “Swinburne Island Hospital;” 
and is used only for infectious diseases. The generous provision now made by 

the State of New York for quarantine purposes can best be understood by a 
brief description of the establishment as it now exists. The total cost of the 
island, including hospital structures, was about $410,000. The island proper 

covers between two and a half and three acres, built on the shoals. The hospital 
is divided into eight wards, capable of accommodating five hundred patients. It 
is first-class in its arrangements, being heated by steam, well ventilated and lighted 
by gas. The second of the artificial islands, called Hoffman Island, was com¬ 
menced in 1869 and completed in 1870. The superstructure was completed in 1873. 
The cost of the island was $264,000. The superstructures consist of three two- 
story buildings, capable of accommodating one thousand five hundred persons, and 
cost several hundred thousand dollars. The boarding station at Clifton, Staten 
Island, is located at the “Narrows” between the upper and lower bay. The resi¬ 
dences of the Health Officer and his deputies are situated at this place, and were 
erected at a cost of $135,000. 





















































Hon. THOMAS C. PLATT, 

T^RESIDENT of the State Board of Quarantine Commissioners, respresented 
New York State in the United States Senate, in 1881. His biography is 
given on page 499 of volume III of The Public Service of the State of 
New York. 


DAVID W. JUDD, 

C OMMISSIONER of Quarantine, was born at Lewistown, Niagara county, New 
York, September 1, 1838. His parents, who were of English ancestry, were 
natives of Massachusetts, and early in life settled in Western New York. David 
Judd was educated in his boyhood at Lockport, Niagara county, New York, later 
in life in private schools in Massachusetts and Ohio, and at the age of twenty- 
one graduated from Williams College, Massachusetts, in the class of i860. Imme¬ 
diately after his graduation he removed to New York city and entered the profession 
of journalism, as one of the editors of a New York weekly. In 1861 and 1862 
he served in the army as a soldier and representative of the New York Times. 
He was taken prisoner at Harper’s Ferry, when Colonel Miles surrendered to Stone¬ 
wall Jackson, and was afterward again taken prisoner at Chancellorsville, but suc¬ 
ceeded each time in making his escape. He received a commission from Governor 
Seymour as Captain in the First New York Veteran Cavalry. From 1864 to 1870 
Mr. Judd was attached to the editorial corps of the New York Commercial Adver¬ 
tiser. In 1870 he became editor and one of the proprietors of Hearth and Home. 
In 1872 he was elected Agent of the New York Associated Press, and filled that posi¬ 
tion two years, when he resigned, to prepare a work for publication. After a year 
and a half spent in rest and travel, he became in 1876 one of the proprietors of 
the Orange Judd Publishing Company, of which he is Vice-President, Treasurer and 
Manager. This company is located at number 751 Broadway, New York, and 
is engaged in the publication of the American Agriculturist , in English and in 
German, and of a line of rural books, and books on field sports. Mr. Judd is the 

[429] 


430 


DAVID W. JUDD. 


author of a work entitled “Two Years Campaigning in Virginia”; and edited and 
prepared “The Educational Encyclopedia,” issued by a New York publishing house. 
He is at present a member of the American Association of Science, a Director 
of the National Rifle Association, a member of the Union League Club, and is 
likewise variously connected with other associations and organizations. Mr. Judd 
has been a Republican since the organization of that party. He represented 
Richmond county (Staten Island) in the Assembly of 1872, serving in that House 
as Chairman of the Committee on Cities, and as a member of the Committees 
on Commerce and Navigation, on Libraries, and on Apportionment of the State. 
Among the bills introduced by him, which passed the Legislature and became 

laws, were the bill providing for the establishment of free libraries, and the 
bill known as the “Judd Jury Bill,” which provides that individuals can act as 
jurors notwithstanding they may have expressed or entertained previous opinions 

as to the guilt or innocence of an accused, providing, in the opinion of the judge, 
they have no present bias which will interfere with their giving a just verdict. 
Also the bill establishing the National Rifle Association (Creedmoor), and making 
the appropriation of $30,000 for the same. Mr. Judd was renominated for the 

Legislature of 1873, but declined a re-election. In the same year he was nomi¬ 
nated by Governor Dix as one of the three State Commissioners of Quarantine. 
He was subsequently successively renominated for the same place by Governor 
Samuel J. Tilden, Governor Lucius Robinson and Governor A. B. Cornell, being 
unanimously confirmed each time by the Senate. 


JOHN A. NICHOLS, 

O F Brooklyn, Commissioner of Quarantine, was born, of French, English and 
Holland ancestry, at Staten Island, New York, August 28, 1831. He received 
an academic education, at the Old Academy in Newark, New Jersey, and at 
Hedges Academy, in the same city. He read law in the office of N. B. Judd, 
of Chicago, and was admitted to the Illinois Bar in i860. He practiced his pro¬ 
fession only a short time, becoming interested in journalism, and afterward engaged 
in the business of insurance, in which he is at present occupied. Mr. Nichols 
is a Republican. He was a member of the Board of Education in Newark, New 
Jersey, in 1855 and 1856. In April, 1880, he was appointed by Governor Cornell 
to his present position of Commissioner of Quarantine. In 1881 he acted as Presi¬ 
dent of the Kings County Republican General Committee. He received the 
honorary degree of Master of Arts from Kenyon College, at Gambier, Ohio. 


IMMIGRATION. 


By H. I. JACKSON. 



HE immigration of Europeans to the United States may be said to have begun 
with the present century. The number who found their way to these shores 


previously, was, at any given period, comparatively small. From 1776 to 1820, about 


two hundred and fifty thousand came to America. From 1820 to the present time, 
about nine millions have arrived; and of these over seven millions entered at 


the port of New York. Emigration from Ireland began noticeably to increase 
about 1844; and from 1845 to I §54> inclusive, one and a half million of immigrants 


left Ireland for the United States. Almost coincident with this great immigration 
from Ireland, was the equally great immigration from Germany, following the polit¬ 
ical troubles of 1848. In consequence of the overcrowding of unsuitable ships — 
many of which would in these days be considered unfit for the transportation of 


cattle — fever in its worst form raged among the unfortunate passengers. There 
being at first no organization for the care of immigrants, and no suitable hospitals 


at the ports of debarkation, the mortality increased rapidly after landing; and it 
has been estimated that not less than twenty thousand perished of ship fever, in 
the various American ports during the year 1847. The dangers to which the immi¬ 
grant was exposed did not end on his landing. Organized bands of immigrant 
“runners” and of other evil-disposed persons practiced on the helpless strangers 


every form of fraiM and extortion that rapacity could invent. These frauds and 
impositions finally reached such fearful proportions, that philanthropic and public- 
spirited citizens—foremost among whom were the late Andrew Carrigan and the 
venerable Thurlow Weed — sought legislation for their redress, and obtained the 
passage by the Legislature, May 5, 1849, °f an act organizing the Board of Com¬ 
missioners of Emigration of the State of New York. 

The first Board of Commissioners was composed of Gulian C. Verplanck, James 
Boorman, Jacob Harvey, Robert B. Minturn, William F. Havemeyer and David 
C. Colden. By the exercise of the powers invested in the Commission by the 

Legislature, the evils referred to were to a great extent remedied. The necessity, 

[431] 



432 


IMMIGRATION. 


however, of obtaining a universal debarkation at some one pier or place, became 
so apparent that, in 1855, the Board of Commissioners secured the passage by 
the Legislature of another special act, authorizing them to compel the landing of 
all immigrants at the State Emigrant Landing Depot, Castle Garden. 

The following is a brief description of the reception and care of the immi¬ 
grants at the present time, upon their arrival in this port. After examination of 
their luggage on ship-board by the Customs Officers, the immigrants are transferred 
to the landing depot, where they are received by the officers of the Commission, 
who enter, in registers kept for the purpose, all necessary particulars for their 
future identification. The names of such as have money-letters or friends awaiting 
them are called out, and they are put in possession of their property or committed 
to their friends, whose credentials have first been properly scrutinized. Such as 
desire can find clerks at hand to write for them in any European language and 
there is a telegraph office within the depot for the forwarding of dispatches. The 

main trunk lines of railway have offices in Castle Garden, at which the immigrant 

can buy tickets and have his luggage weighed and checked ; responsible money- 
brokers are admitted to exchange the foreign coin or paper of immigrants; a 
restaurant supplies them with plain food at moderate prices; a physician is in 
attendance for the sick, and a temporary hospital ready to receive them until they 
can be conveyed to Ward’s Island; those in search of employment are furnished 
it at the labor bureau connected with the institution. Such as desire to start at 

once for their destination are sent to the railway or steamboat depot, while any 

who may choose to remain in the city are referred to boarding-house keepers 
whose houses are under the supervision of the Board. All complaints made by 
immigrants in regard to ill-treatment on shipboard or elsewhere, are carefully exam¬ 
ined into by the Commissioners, and redress obtained when possible. The estab¬ 
lishment on Ward’s Island, where sick and destitute immigrants are cared for 
until able to proceed to their destinations or provide for themselves, embraces over 
one hundred and twenty acres of land, on which have been erected by the Com¬ 
missioners suitable hospitals, asylum for the insane, refuge for the destitute, and 
other buildings. The immigration to this port during the year ending December 
31, 1881, is the largest since the organization of the Commission — over four hun¬ 
dred and forty thousand immigrants having been landed. 

The present Board of Commissioners, of which Henry A. Hurlbut is President, 
consists of the following gentlemen : George J. Forrest, Edmund Stephenson, George 
Starr, Charles F. Ulrich, Charles N. Taintor; James Lynch, President of Irish Emi¬ 
gration Society; Charles Hauselt, President of German Emigration Society; William 
R. Grace, Mayor of the city of New York. 










9 





HENRY A. HURLBUT, 

"T^RESIDENT of the Board of Commissioners of Emigration, was born in Hart- 
ford, Connecticut, December 8, 1808, and was the son of Ebenezer Hurlbut 
and Fanny Brewster Hurlbut. His father, one of the oldest merchants in a com¬ 
munity long noted for the number, breadth and thrift of its commercial enterprises, 
was also a native of Hartford, and came of a stock which had been in the Con¬ 
necticut Colony since 1636. On the mother’s side, Henry A. Hurlbut is a direct 
descendant of Elder Brewster who came to America in the Mayflower in 1620, as 
one of the founders of the Plymouth Colony. Partly educated in the common 
schools of his native city, Mr. Hurlbut’s training was wonderfully broadened and 
deepened by persistent personal efforts for self-culture outside the schools. 

It was the purpose of Mr. Hurlbut’s father that his son should be his successor 
in business, but this was thwarted by the death of the father in 1820; which left 
the boy free to form a career for himself. Various business openings were offered 
to him, each of which was fair in promise. But the lad appreciated the value of 
a trade, and at the age of sixteen—1824 — began a new process of education by 
voluntarily apprenticing himself to the leading hatter of New Haven, Connecticut. 
In 1828 the death of his employer released young Hurlbut from his indentures. 
New partners came into the business, who advanced him to the position of Gen¬ 
eral Superintendent and Manager of the manufactory. Early in the year 1835 
he was received into the firm. In the same year, Mr. Hurlbut urged upon his 
partners the establishment of a branch house in the city of New York. The New 
York branch was established; and within one year, under Mr. Hurlbuts manage¬ 
ment, the business grew so rapidly that, in 1839, disposing of its New Haven inter¬ 
ests, the firm began to devote itself entirely to the development of a great metro¬ 
politan house. In 1843, formed a business partnership with John H. Swift, under 
the firm name of Swift & Hurlbut. This firm, by 1851, had become the prominent 
hat manufacturers of the United States. By mutual consent, this copartnership was 
dissolved in i860; and after a commercial career of twenty-five years, Mr. Hurlbut 
retired with an ample fortune. He had married in 1832, and now, surrounded by 
a charming family, was ready to devote his powers to other and broader interests. 


434 


HENRY A. HURLBUT. 


Continuing to reside in the city of New York during the War of the Rebel¬ 
lion, Mr. Hurlbut was always an active and patriotic Republican. In his business 
career, he early evinced decided interest in and aptitude for the management of 
financial institutions. He was made Vice-President of the Greenwich Savings Bank, 
New York city, and subsequently becoming one of the ten founders of the Second 
National Bank in the city of his adoption, was its President, until a due regard 
for his private affairs constrained him to decline the position, although he still 
retains his connection with that bank as Director. He is also Director in the 
New York Metropolitan and Garfield Banks. His connection with the New York 
Mercantile Trust Company is a prominent one, and for years past he has been a 
Director of the Equitable Life Insurance as well as of the Home Fire Insurance 
Company in the same city. In municipal, social and benevolent work Mr. Hurlbut 
has been well and widely known. In religious and benevolent circles he has been 
worthily prominent, serving for many years as a Trustee of the Fifth Avenue 
Presbyterian Church; and as a Trustee of the American Seamen’s Friend Society, 
of which efficient organization he is now one of the acting Vice-Presidents. 

Mr. Hurlbut has made several trips to Europe, spending prolonged seasons 
abroad; and in England and on the Continent he prosecuted indefatigably a minute 
study into the condition and habits of the- poorer classes of the Old World. In 
1873 he was appointed by Governor Dix a Commissioner of Emigration for the 
State of New York. Subsequently he was chosen to the Presidency of the Com¬ 
missioners’ Board. When Governor Cornell assumed the duties of his office, Mr. 
Hurlbut was reappointed a Commissioner, and was promptly re-elected President. 
He still holds the position, and his wise direction, with the cooperation of intelli¬ 
gent colleagues, has been of the utmost service in the development of the use¬ 
fulness of the Board. In person, Mr. Hurlbut is over six feet in height, with 
erect form and a fine physique. Genial and sympathetic in general intercourse, 
he has a host of friends. He is not only liberal in extending counsel, but in giving 
aid to deserving persons and objects. There have been exigencies in the Emigra¬ 
tion Department, of no rare occurrence, for his dealing with which his name will 
always be held in honorable esteem. And men of large means in the city of New 
York have not seldom owed their start in life to his generosity and provision. 

In brief, Henry A. Hurlbut belongs to that class of New York merchant 
princes whose history is a vital part of the past and present life of the metropolis 
whose prosperity they have created and sustained. He has carried the same spirit 
which once marked his own business career, into his retirement from its unremit¬ 
ting activities and pressing claims — never hesitating to take a risk that seemed 
legitimate, and never withholding a personal sacrifice when the appeal to his 
humanity has been wisely and faithfully made. 


























































































CANAL LOCKS AT LOCKPORT. 
















THE CANALS. 

By HORATIO SEYMOUR, Jr. 


CHAPTER I. 


Inland Lock Navigation Companies. — General Philip Schuyler. — Elkanah Watson.— 
Canal at Little Falls. — Wooden Locks. — Canal at Rome. — Brick Locks. — Mis¬ 
takes of the Companies. — Failure of Inland Lock Navigation Companies due to 
the Commencement of the Erie Canal. 


4 » 

^|*HE Legislature of the State of New York inaugurated canal navigation on 
the 20th day of March, 1792, by a law, entitled “An Act for establishing 
and opening lock navigation within this State,” commencing in these words: 

“ Whereas a communication, by water, between the southern, northern and 
western parts of this State will encourage agriculture, promote commerce, and 
facilitate a general intercourse between the citizens, therefore, 

Be it enacted by the People of the State of New York, represented in 
Senate and Assembly, * * * That there shall be established two 

companies of stockholders, one for the purpose of opening a lock navigation from 
the now navigable part of the Hudson river, to be extended to Lake Ontario 
and to Seneca lake, and to be called and known by the name of ‘ The President, 
Directors, and Company of the Western Inland Lock Navigation in the State of 
New York,’ and one other company for the like purpose, from the now navigable 
part of the Hudson river to Lake Champlain, and to be called and to be known 
by the name of ‘ The President, Directors, and Company of the Northern Inland 
Lock Navigation in the State of New York.’” 

It then goes on to name General Philip Schuyler, General Leonard Gansevoort 
and twenty-six other leading citizens as Directors of the Western Inland Lock 
Navigation Company, and Philip Schuyler, Abraham Ten Broeck, and others, 
Directors of the Northern Inland Lock Navigation Company. Among the pro¬ 
visions of the bill, is one that the companies should not set up a bank, and 

1 435 ] 





43 6 


THE CANALS. 


another that they should not take more than $25 a ton toll. This limitation ot 
charges applied only to the transportation of a ton from Oneida lake to Schenec¬ 
tady. To-day the same weight of grain is carried from Lake Erie to New York, 
nearly five times as far, for about $1.25. 

Soon after the organization of these companies, General Philip Schuyler, Golds¬ 
boro Banyar, and Elkanah Watson were appointed a committee to make a survey 
and an estimate of the cost of the contemplated canal. They started with two 
batteaux and commenced their work at Little Falls. The report which this com¬ 
mittee made to the company was not entirely unanimous. Elkanah Watson says 
that he disagreed with General Schuyler “ as to wood locks, and employing a 
foreign practical engineer, as we had none in this country.” The estimated cost 
ot the work was, at Little Falls, £10,500; at Fort Stanwix, ,£3,000, and the aggre¬ 
gate estimate to complete the navigation from Schenectady to Wood creek, £"39,500. 
In 1804, the total amount expended was $367,743. 

The company labored under the greatest difficulties; there was no work of 
the kind in the country and no skilled labor. Two mechanics were sent to the 
Potomac to obtain information from the work there, but there was nothing to be 
gained, for the Virginians were equally without experience, and both fell into the 
error of building wooden locks. Work was commenced at Little Falls in April, 
1793, with three hundred laborers, and a force of mechanics, but the want of funds 
forced the company to cease operations in September. 

In the summer of 1793, the Directors caused the timber to be cut out of 
Wood creek, which had fallen so as to make it almost impassable. They also 
straightened the channel. In doing this they cut through no less than thirteen 
isthmuses and reduced the distance more than seven miles. But the company 
reported that the banks were so thickly covered with trees of the largest size, 
and that so many of these, either from the wind or from decay, were thrown into 
the stream, that it would be necessary to clear the banks for a distance of nearly 

four rods on each side. The work at Little Falls was resumed on the 1st of 

January, 1794, but on a small scale, there still being a want of money. 

The Legislature, in the law incorporating them, had fixed the number of sub¬ 
scribers at one thousand for each company. In spite of the favorable terms 
offered by the State, only seven hundred and forty-three shares were subscribed 
for the Western, and six hundred and seventy-six for the Northern Navigation 
Company. Many of these shares seem to have been taken in the hope of a 
rise in value, but this did not take place, and the result was, that at the second 

call for money by the Directors, many of the shares were forfeited for non-payment. 

The Legislature, seeing the benefits that the State would derive from the 

completion of the work, subscribed for two hundred shares of each company This 


THE CANALS. 


437 


revived the hope of General Schuyler and his friends, and in May, 1795, the work 
was again resumed, and the canal was completed in November. 

In order to assist the enterprise the State loaned it $37,500, and took a 
mortgage on the Little Falls canal and locks. 

In the spring of 1796, the canal was commenced at Fort Stanwix (Rome). 

Great difficulty was found at first in obtaining workmen, but this was finally 

obviated, and in October, 1797, the canal was opened for the passage of boats. 

I he company, seeing the mistake of building wooden locks at Little Falls, 
constructed those at Fort Stanwix of brick, but found that they had again made 
an error, as the locks built of bricks put together with quick-lime were soon 

destroyed by the action of the frost. 

The act of 1792 provided for a system of navigation from Schenectady to 
Lake Ontario or Seneca lake, the work to be completed in fifteen years. This 
time had elapsed, and, although much had been done, more remained to be done. 
Seeing the great advantages that would proceed from an inland navigation, and 
feeling that, unless they could complete the project, their money would be lost, 
the company petitioned the Legislature for an extension of time. Their request 

was granted, and the time extended five years from the 1st of January, 1808. 

In 1812 a commission was appointed to ascertain the amount for which the 

Western Inland Lock Navigation Company would sell their rights to the State. The 
reply was that they expected $190,000. Nothing, however, was done until 1820, 

when the property was appraised at $151,820; the members of the company to 
receive $91,616, and the State the remainder. The work after this became absorbed 
in the canal system of the State of New York. 

The history of this undertaking is remarkable. Taking into consideration the 
time when it was commenced, it was the greatest private enterprise in this 
country. Without experience or the assistance of any one skilled in such work, 

and with no knowledge except such as could be derived from books, a few 
individuals attempted to make a system of inland navigation such as would now 
be intrusted only to the most skillful and experienced men. 

The location of the work was in a wilderness to which all the necessaries of 
life had to be transported. 

The mistakes made by the Inland Navigation Company enabled the Erie 
canal to succeed. If the former had not shown the folly of wooden and brick 
locks, and the impossibility of improving the Mohawk river, the men who so 
successfully carried the Erie canal to completion might have fallen into the same 
errors; De Witt Clinton says of the company’s works in 1810: 

“ The wooden locks put the company to an extra expense of $5,000 or 
$10,000 per lock. The artificial wall that supported the banks cost $15,000. It 


43§ 


THE CANALS. 


was built dry on the inside of the banks. It served as a sieve to carry off the 

water, and to injure the banks, and it has become necessary to remove it. The 
canal company has endeavored, by dams and other expedients, to deepen the river 
and improve the navigation, but they have only encountered unnecessary expense; 
the next freshet or rise of the river has either swept away the sections or 

changed the current.” 

In 1798, the tolls charged at Rome were £1 12s. per ton of merchandise, 

and £1 12s. for batteaux carrying nine tons, navigated by five men, and 12s. 
for batteaux carrying one and one-half tons, navigated by three men. In 1807 
the tolls charged at Little Falls were $2.25 per ton, besides a charge of from 

$1.50 to $2,621 on each boat. 

As late as 1820 grain was brought over this route from the Seneca country. 

The Northern Company was not as successful as the Western. The upper 
Hudson river was full of rapids. The fall from Fort Edward to Albany was 
gradual, while that on the Mohawk was concentrated at Cohoes, Little Falls and 
German Flats. The survey and estimate of the Northern Company made by 

William Western contemplated sixteen locks, a number of pieces of canal, some 
as long as twelve miles, and two expensive dams. The company spent all its 
money at Stillwater, where a canal, twelve miles in length, was necessary, and at 
Skenesborough, the head of sloop navigation on Lake Champlain, 

General Philip Schuyler, in his report to the Legislature in 1796, says: 

“In 1793 a contract was made * * for constructing a canal and locks 

to open the navigation of the Northern Wood creek with Lake Champlain, 
obstructed by the falls at Skenesborough. The excavation of the canal through 
solid rock is nearly completed, and the locks will be constructed and finished 
in the present year, if contracts for furnishing the necessary number of bricks can 
be made * * * ” 

These two pieces of work were so small a part of what was necessary to 
complete the navigation, that very little benefit could be derived from them. 

The project of uniting the waters of the Hudson and Lake Champlain, as 
contemplated by the Northern Inland Lock Navigation Company, was abandoned. 
The Western Inland Lock Navigation Company did not attempt to improve the 
navigation of the Mohawk river at Cohoes, as such an undertaking was beyond their 
means. Their works were at Little Falls, fifty-six miles from Schenectady, at 
German Flats, about six miles further, and at Fort Stanwix, fifty miles beyond. The 
locks would admit of boats carrying about thirty tons, but the difficulties to be 
encountered on the long stretches of river between, made it impossible to carry 
more than ten or twelve tons; yet this was a great improvement over the method 
of portage when the boats could carry but a ton and a half. 


THE CANALS. 


439 


The primitive style of navigation on the Mohawk river was but an example 
of that on the whole route from Albany to the Lakes. The outlet of Oneida 
lake was full of rapids, and so was the Oswego river, while the Oswego falls 
were obstacles of such magnitude that they were considered impassable, and a 
railroad was thought of as a means of transporting to Oswego the freight brought 
to the head of the falls. There was another portage eight miles long from 
Lewiston to Schlosser on the Niagara river, and above this, vessels had to be 
drawn by oxen from the rapids to Lake Erie. The journey from Albany by 
Lake Ontario and the Niagara river to Lake Erie took nearly a month, and 
involved severe labor and great expense. 

\\ hile the country was new and there was little travel, the improvements made 
by the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company were all that was needed or 
that the people of the State could afford. But this did not last, and a demand 
soon came for a safer, quicker, and more economical method of transportation. 


CHAPTER II. 

Gouverneur Morris. — His Efforts in Behalf of the Erie Canal. — James Geddes.— 
Joshua Forman.— His Election to the Legislature.—Jesse Hawley.— Forman 
Resolutions. — Benjamin Franklin makes a Survey for a Canal to connect Chesa¬ 
peake and Delaware Bays.—Judge Benjamin Wright.— Survey for Canal ordered.— 
James Geddes makes the First Survey for Erie Canal.—Joseph Ellicott.— Iron- 
dequoit Embankment.—De Witt Clinton. —Canal Commissioners Appointed. — Their 
Trip to Lake Erie. — First Report of the Commissioners.— Opposition to the 
Canal. — War of 1812. — Canal Postponed. — General J. Rutsen Van Rensselaer.— 
Passage of Act Authorizing the Construction of the Canal.— Financial Policy.— 
George Tidbits. — Lotteries. — Aid from Ohio. 


To Gouverneur Morris, more than to any other man, is due the credit of 
convincing the people of this State of the advantage of a canal, extending from 
Lake Erie to the Hudson. His faith in this scheme was characteristic of his 
nature. During the Revolutionary War, in all the suffering and despondency 
of Valley Forge, he never for a moment lost hope in the success of the Republic; 
and this disposition led him to look for greater commercial growth in our own 
State, than other men of his day. As early as 1777, in a conversation at Fort 
Edward with General Schuyler and Governor Morgan Lewis, he predicted “ that 




440 


THE CANALS. 


at no distant day the waters of the great inland seas would by the aid of man 
break through their barriers and mingle with those of the Hudson.” In 1800 
he made a journey up the Hudson to Lake George, through Lake Champlain 

to Montreal, and thence up the St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario, along its southern 
shore to Niagara and Lake Erie. In the same year he wrote to his friend, John 
Parish : 

“ Proceeding from the falls to Lake Erie, along the bank of Neaga river, 
the contrast is complete. A quiet, gentle stream leaves the shores of a country 

level and fertile. Along the banks of this stream, which by reason of an island 

in it, appears to be of moderate size, we proceed to Port Erie. Here again 

the boundless waste of waters fills the mind with renewed astonishment, and here, 
as in turning a point of wood, the lake broke upon our view, I saw riding at 
anchor nine vessels, the least of them one hundred tons. Can you bring your 

imagination to realize this scene? Does it not seem like magic? Yes, this magic 
is but the early effort of victorious industry. Hundreds of large ships will at no 
distant period bound on the billows of those inland seas. At this point com¬ 

mences a navigatioii of more than a thousand miles. Shall I lead your imagina¬ 
tion to the verge of incredulity? I will. Know, then, that one-tenth of the expense 
borne by Great Britain in the last campaign would enable ships to sail from London 
through Hudson’s river into Lake Erie. As yet, my friend, we only crawl along 
the outer shell of our country. The interior excels the part we inhabit, in soil, in 
climate, in every thing. The proudest empire in Europe is but a bauble compared 
to what America will be, must be, in the course of two centuries, perhaps one.” 

Mr. Morris never ceased to ur^e the advantage of a canal to Lake Erie. 

We hear of his consulting Charles C. Brodhead, of Utica, and in 1803 he talked 

of the subject to Simeon De Witt, Surveyor-General of the State. 

In 1804 the latter repeated the conversation which he had with Gouverneur 
Morris respecting the Erie canal to James Geddes, a land surveyor residing in 
the center of the State. His knowledge of the country, his occupation, and his 
education enabled him to see what might not have occurred to the originator of 
the scheme, that, in addition to the saving in distance and the lessened danger of 
the inland route, there would be great advantage in a canal which would avoid 
the great descent from the head waters of the Mohawk river to Lake Ontario. 

Mr. Geddes collected all the facts and information possible in regard to this 
proposed line. He was already familiar with the swamps that extended from 
Montezuma to the Mohawk, and he now studied the country to the west of the 
Seneca river. He consulted all the maps, and corresponded with the land surveyors 
familiar with that region. 

In 1807, the people of Onondaga county, without respect to party, chose 
Joshua Lorman as the man to bring the canal project before the State, and in 
April, 1807, he was elected to the Legislature. 


THE CANALS. 


441 


The acknowledgment on the part of the Inland Navigation Company that they 
were unable to carry out their scheme for uniting the waters of the Hudson with 
the Great Lakes, made those interested in the development of the State more 
anxious for the success of some other plan of internal navigation. 

In 1807, the country was encouraged in its attempts to inaugurate internal 
improvements by the report of Hon. Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, in 
which the advantages of wagon roads and canals between the sea-board and the 
heart of the country were discussed. 

The benefit of canals had been demonstrated abroad. The minds of the people 
had been turned toward them for some years. The Duke of Bridgewater’s 
canal was commenced in 1758, and was followed by the construction of other 
canals in various parts of England. 

In 1765, Benjamin Eranklin, aided by Mr. Rittenhouse, surveyed the route for 
a canal between the Chesapeake and Delaware bays. 

The Legislatures of Virginia and Maryland passed acts in 1785 to encourage 
the opening of the Potomac river. In 1789 the Dismal Lake canal was built, five 
and a half miles long. In 1790 a canal was made, seven miles in length, connect¬ 
ing the Elizabeth and James rivers. In the same year Pennsylvania appointed com¬ 
missioners to report whether a canal could be built from Philadelphia to Presque 
Isle, Lake Erie, and in 1791 an act was passed to incorporate a company for this 
purpose. In 1792 a corporation was formed in Massachusetts for improving the 
Connecticut river. The next year the Middlesex canal, from the Harbor of Boston 
to the Merrimac river, thirty miles in length, was incorporated. In 1795 a canal 
was commenced from Norristown, on the Schuylkill, to the Delaware river, seventeen 
miles distant. And in 1800 the Carolinas had granted charters for canals. 

At the time when Mr. Forman was elected to the Assembly, the Erie canal 
was looked upon as too expensive an enterprise to be undertaken by New York 
alone. As it was to be a means of communication between the sea-board and the 
interior of the continent, it seemed proper that the United States should bear 
the expense. 

Mr. Forman, after his arrival in Albany, prepared the way for introducing to 
the Legislature the project to promote which he was elected. To aid him, he called 
upon Judge Benjamin Wright, Member of Assembly from Oneida county, who had 
surveyed more than a hundred miles of the proposed Erie canal, and had built 
the locks at Rome for the Inland Lock Navigation Company. 

On the 4th of February, 1808, Mr. Forman called up the following resolutions 
which he had introduced some days before : 

“Whereas, The President of the United States, by his message to Congress, 
delivered at their meeting in October last, did recommend that the surplus 

5 6 


44 2 


THE CANALS. 


moneys in the treasury, over and above such sums as could be applied to the 
extinguishment of the national debt, be appropriated to the great national objects 
of opening canals and making turnpike roads; 

“And Whereas, The State of New York, holding the first commercial rank 
in the United States, possesses within herself the best route of communication 
between the Atlantic and western waters, by means of a canal between the tide 
waters of the Hudson river and Lake Erie, through which the wealth and trade 
of that large portion of the Union bordering on the upper lakes would forever 
flow to our great commercial emporium ; 

“And Whereas, The Legislatures of several of our sister States have made 
great exertions to secure to their own States the trade of that widely extended 
country west of the Alleghany, under natural advantages vastly inferior to those 
of this State ; 

“And Whereas, It is highly important that those advantages should, as speedily 
as possible, be improved, both to preserve and increase the commercial and national 
importance of this State; therefore 

“Resolved (if the Honorable Senate concur herein), That a joint committee 
be appointed to take into consideration the propriety of exploring and causing an 
accurate survey to be made of the most eligible and direct route for a canal, to 
open a communication between the tide waters of the Hudson river and Lake 
Erie, to the end that Congress may be enabled to appropriate such sums as may 
be necessary to the accomplishment of that great national object, and in case of 
such concurrence, that Mr. Gould, Mr. Gilbert, Mr. Lorman, Mr. German and 
Mr. Hogeboom be a committee on the part of this House.” 

Mr. Lorman followed these resolutions with a speech, in which he described 
the proposed canal, and the advantages to be gained from it, and estimated the 
cost of the work at $10,000,000. Judge Wright, of Oneida, seconded the resolutions. 

On the 21 st of March, Mr. Gould reported an amendment to these resolutions 
that the Surveyor-General should cause a survey to be made of the usual route 
between the Hudson river and Lake Erie, and such others as he may deem proper, 
one copy of which survey should be filed with the Secretary of State, and another 
forwarded to the President of the United States. Six hundred dollars was appro¬ 
priated for this purpose. 

The Surveyor-General, Simeon DeWitt, selected fames Geddes as the most 
competent man to do this work; but, because the resolution had used the words 
“usual route,” he directed him to make a survey from Oneida lake to Lake 
Ontario, first by way of the town of Mexico, in Oswego county, second, west of 
the Oswego river; then to make an examination for a canal around Niagara Palls. 
The line from Lake Erie to the head waters of the Mohawk was to be examined, 
but as the appropriation was small, no survey was to be made. 

If these orders had been explicitly carried out, the Erie canal problem would 
have remained unsolved perhaps for many years. The Oswego river had been long 


THE CANALS. 


443 


navigated, and although there were hindrances to this navigation, it was known that 
they could be overcome, but whether a canal could be carried from Lake Erie to the 
valley of the Genesee, and from there to Mud creek, a tributary of the Seneca 
river, was an unsettled question. It was also necessary to find some way to cross 
the valley of the Irondequoit before a canal from Lake Erie could be pronounced 
feasible. Geddes determined, not only to carry out his instructions, but to settle 
the question of an Erie canal. When he had finished his surveys to Lake Ontario 
and around Niagara Falls, he commenced a survey of the interior at his own 
expense. Joseph Ellicott furnished a map of the country from Lake Erie to the 
head waters of the Tonawanda creek, and from there to the Genesee river. 

The results of the survey are given in Mr. Geddes’ own words: 

“ The spot of great difficulty and uncertainty respecting our inland route 
remained unexamined, to-wit : The tract between Genesee river and Palmyra, or 
head waters of Mud creek — and the hopes from a view of maps discouraging indeed. 
Where was the water to be got, for locking over the high land that was sup¬ 
posed to rise between Genesee river and Mud creek ? All knowledge of an 
interior route was incomplete while this piece of country remained unknown. In 
December of that year, I again left home for the above object, and after dis¬ 
covering at the west end of Palmyra that singular brook — Thomas’ creek — 
which divides, running part to Oswego, and part to the Irondequoit bay, I leveled 
from this spot to the Genesee river, and to my great joy and surprise found 
the level of the river far elevated above the spot • where the brooks parted, and 
no high lands between. 

But to make the Genesee river run down Mud creek, it must be got over 
the Irondequoit Valley. After leveling from my first line one and a half miles 
up the valley, I found the place where the canal is now making across that stream. 

***** The passage of the Irondequoit Valley is on a 
surface not surpassed perhaps in the world for singularity. The ridges, along the 
top of which the canal is carried, are in many places of just sufficient height and 
width for its support. * * * * When the work is finished, the 

appearance to a stranger will be, that nearly all these natural embankments are 
artificial works. * * * * The surface of the foundation of the arch 

for the stream to pass through is just seventy feet below the top water line of 
the canal. * * * * While traveling the snowy hills in December, 

1808, I little thought of seeing the Genesee waters crossing this valley on the 
embankment now constructing over it. I had, to be sure, lively presentiments that 
time would bring about all I was planning ; that boats would one day pass along 
on the tops of these fantastic ridges ; that posterity would see and enjoy the sub¬ 
lime spectacle,— but that for myself I had been born many, very many years too 
soon. There are those, sir, who can realize my feelings on such an occasion, 
and can forgive if I felt disposed to exclaim Eureka , on making the discovery. 
How would the great Brindley, with all his characteristic anxiety to avoid lockage, 
have felt in such a case, all his cares at an end about water to lock up from 


444 


THE CANALS. 


the Genesee river, finding no lockage required ? Boats to pass over these arid 
plains, and along the very tops of these high ridges, seemed like idle tales to 
every one around me.” 

Mr. Geddes’ report to the Surveyor-General, in 1809, determined the practica¬ 
bility of the Erie canal. It was only necessary to bring to the attention of the 
people the benefits of such a work. During the year 1809 the canal question 
was very generally discussed. The report of Mr. Geddes led the public mind 
to think of the subject of a canal through the interior of the State. 

At the session of the Legislature of 1810 a number of projects relating to 

canals were brought forward. These were all referred to a committee, of which 

Judge Jonas Platt, of Oneida county, was chairman. After consulting with Thomas 
Eddy, Abraham Van Vechten, De Witt Clinton, and other prominent men in the 
Legislature, Judge Platt, on the 12th of March, 1810, reported a resolution appoint¬ 
ing Gouverneur Morris, Stephen Van Rensselaer, De Witt Clinton, Simeon De Witt, 
William North, Thomas Eddy, and Peter B. Porter, Commissioners to explore the 
country between the Hudson river and Lake Erie ; to examine the condition of 
the present navigation, and consider what further improvements should be made and 
make the necessary surveys. At the same time $3,000 was appropriated to defray 
the expenses. 

Previous to this De Witt Clinton had taken no interest in canal affairs, but 

after a conversation with Judge Platt and Thomas Eddy, he was so impressed 

with the importance of the work, that he gave to it his whole attention. He 

was at this time the most influential man in the Senate. 

In July, 1810, the Commissioners started on their tour of exploration, having 
engaged James Geddes as a surveyor. They followed the Mohawk to Rome, 
crossed over the portage to Wood creek into Oneida lake, and down the outlet to 
Three River Point. They visited Oswego, and returned by way of the Seneca river. 
Passing Cayuga lake to Geneva, they left their boats and continued the journey by 
land, examining the Irondequoit creek at the point where Mr. Geddes suggested 
an embankment for the canal. They crossed the Genesee river at Rochester, and 
from there followed what is called the Ridge road to Lewiston. After visiting 
Niagara Falls and Buffalo, they separated to meet again in New York, having 
given Mr. Geddes instructions to make the necessary levels and surveys. 

The plan, as proposed by Mr. Ellicott, was to carry the canal across the 

Tonawanda swamp, under the supposition that it was not far from the level of 
Lake Erie. It was afterward found to be seventy-five feet above the lake. Mr. 

Geddes, however, found a low place in the mountain ridge through which the canal 
could be carried, and this seventy-five feet of lockage avoided, and the waters of 
Lake Erie used to supply the canal as far as Montezuma. 


THE CANALS. 


445 


The report of the Commissioners to the Legislature contained the change 
proposed by Mr. Geddes, and opposed a canal around Niagara Tails and up the 
Oswego river, because of the greater amount of lockage, the danger to vessels 
in such a body of water as Lake Ontario, and the risk of interference from Great 
Britain in case of war. 

% 

After making this report to the Legislature, Mr. Clinton introduced a bill which 

became a law. This law provided that the Commissioners, who were the same 

as those appointed the year previous, with the addition of Robert R. Livingston 
and Robert Lulton, should apply for aid to the National Government, the Legis¬ 
latures of adjoining States, and the owners of land through which the canal was 
to pass; that they should make such surveys as were necessary, and report at 
the next session. Lifteen thousand dollars were appropriated for the purposes 

set forth in the act. 

In March, 1812, the Commissioners made their second report. They stated 
that they had made an offer of the canal to the General Government, but 
had found themselves obliged, for “ prudential ” reasons, not only to blend the 
navigation between Lake Erie and Hudson’s river, with objects, some of which 
were subservient to local interest, but to refrain from asking from the General 

Government an advance, or even an appropriation of money. The utmost they 

hoped to obtain was a grant of land ; a grant so limited as not to take effect 
until after the canal should be completed, at the expense of New York. As 
nothing could be realized until after the canal was built, they recommended that 
the State commence the work without delay. They also reported that they had 
conferred with the Legislatures of several States, with the following result: Ten¬ 
nessee was favorable to the project; New Jersey complained of a lack of means; 
Connecticut resolved that it was inexpedient; Vermont considered the scheme 

worthy of consideration, but postponed action ; Massachusetts directed her Senators 
and Representatives to render all the aid in their power; Ohio also approved of 

the plan. The officers of the Territory of Michigan replied that the idea of a 
canal from Lake Erie was not as desirable as a canal around the cataract at 

Niagara, and another around the falls of the Oswego. To this the Commissioners 
replied : “ That they had too much respect for these gentlemen to suppose they 
would have given this opinion without information and consideration, wherefore they 
must infer that the information received was not founded on fact; or that, not 
having habitually turned their attention to objects of this sort, they are not well 
qualified to judge as the consciousness of intelligence respecting matters now familiar 
to their minds may have led them to suppose.” 

The Commissioners, in this report, estimated the cost of the canal at $6,000,000, 
and advised the construction of one to Lake Champlain simultaneously with that to 


446 


THE CANALS. 


Lake Erie. Their failure to obtain aid from the General Government grew out of 
the jealousy of other States; in order to overcome this, the bill introduced in 
Congress was amended so as to include canals in various States in the Union — 
in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia and Kentucky, and appropriated 
a territory equal in area to one-half the State of New York. The scope of the 
act was so great that it failed to become a law. 

The recommendation of the Commissioners was approved by the Legislature of 
New York, and on June 19, 1812, an act was passed authorizing them to purchase, 
on such terms as they thought reasonable, all the property and rights of the Inland 

Lock Navigation Company, and to borrow $5,000,000, at not more than six per 

cent interest, and for not less than fifteen years’ time, for the purpose of constructing 
inland navigation between Lake Erie and the Hudson river. The breaking out 

of the War of 1812 delayed the building of the Erie canal for five years. In 

1814 the Commissioners reported to the Legislature that they had engaged an 

English engineer of ability, but on account of the difficulty between Great Britain 
and this country, he had not arrived. They had also been prevented, by the same 
cause, from obtaining the loan which was authorized by the Legislature. The dis¬ 
turbance of the country assisted the opponents of the canals. Erastus Root, of 
Delaware, the leader of the opposition in the Legislature, claimed that it would be 
particularly injurious and even ruinous to the farmers of his county, in that it 
would enable the farmers of Western New York to compete with them in the 

same markets. In this mistaken view he was joined by the Representatives of 

Northern and Southern New York, and of the counties lying along the shores of 
the Hudson. 

On the 15th of April, 1814, so much of the act of 1812 was repealed as 

authorized the Commissioners to borrow $5,000,000 to construct the Erie canal, 
leaving only that portion which referred to the purchase of the Inland Lock 
Navigation Company, and to receiving grants of land. General J. Rutsen Van 
Rensselaer made an unsuccessful effort to amend this act, so that the power of 
the Commissioners to borrow $ 5,000,000 for the purpose of constructing inland 
navigation from Lake Erie to the Hudson, should be suspended until one year 
after the termination of the war. Although the last battle was fought at New 
Orleans, January 8, 1815, nothing was done to revive the canal project until the fall 
of that year, when De Witt Clinton, Judge Jonas Platt, and Thomas Eddy met 
together in the city of New York. It was proposed to call a meeting of the prin¬ 
cipal citizens at the City Hotel, and cards of invitation were issued to about one 
hundred gentlemen. Judge Platt made an address, and a committee was appointed, 
consisting of De Witt Clinton, Thomas Eddy, Cadwallader D. Colden, and John 
Swartwout, to prepare and circulate a memorial to the Legislature. 


THE CANALS. 


447 


This was written by Mr. Clinton, and wonderfully predicted the results of the 
canal : 

“The trade will be turned from Montreal and New Orleans, to which places 
it has begun to flow; agriculture will find a sale for its products; manufacturers 
a vent for their fabrics, and commerce a market for its commodities. It will make 
New York the greatest commercial city in the world. Villages, towns, and cities, 
will line the banks of the canal and the shores of the Hudson from Erie to New 
York. ‘The wilderness and solitary places will become glad, and the desert will 
rejoice and blossom as the rose.’ It will cheapen the cost of manufactured articles 
to those residing in the remote portions of the State.” 

In January, 1816, Governor Daniel D. Tompkins, in his annual address, advo¬ 
cated the building of the Erie and Champlain canals, and meetings were held in the 
city of New York, and at Albany, Utica, Onondaga. Geneva, Canandaigua and Buf¬ 
falo, to urge a favorable action of the Legislature. 

On the 16th of March, 1816, the Commissioners made another report, in which 
they urged that the canal be commenced, and recommended that the work be begun 
from Rome to the Seneca river, because it would have a tendency to divert the trade 
going to Lake Ontario and Montreal. March 21, General J. Rutsen Van Rensselaer, 
of the joint committee of the Senate and Assembly, reported in favor of bringing 
in a bill, and supported himself by statements from the engineers, James Geddes 
and Benjamin Wright. The opponents of the canal made great resistance, and it 
was not until April 13, after having failed six times, that an act passed authorizing 
the Commissioners to make a more careful survey and estimate. 

At the next meeting of the Legislature there was a stronger feeling in favor of 
the canals. The Commissioners made a detailed report early in the session, and it 
was referred to a joint committee of the Senate and Assembly, of which Hon. William 
D. Ford, of Herkimer, was chairman. They reported that it would be for the 
best interest of the State to commence the work at once. Then arose the ques¬ 
tion, how to raise the necessary money ? A direct tax on the people might result 
in such opposition as to endanger the whole enterprise. The committee of the 
Legislature requested the Canal Commissioners to provide them with a plan. 

They did so, but it was rejected, and the plan of George Tibbits, of Troy, 
substituted for it. To this judicious scheme is due, in a great degree, the success 
of the canals. It provided that the Lieutenant-Governor, the Comptroller, the 
Attorney-General, the Surveyor-General and the Secretary and Treasurer were 
to form a board, to be called the Commissioners of the Canal Fund, in whose 
hands should be placed all moneys. They were to borrow, at not more than six 
per cent interest, a sum that, together with the income from the funds, should not 
exceed in any one year $400,000, for which moneys so borrowed the Comptroller 


44§ 


THE CANALS. 


was to issue certificates of stock, payable at such times as the Commissioners should 
determine. 

The funds for the benefit of the canals were to be derived from a tax of 
twelve and a half cents upon each bushel of salt manufactured in the western dis¬ 
trict of the State and at Onondaga; one dollar on every passenger traveling on 
any steamboat on the Hudson river over one hundred miles, and half that sum for 
any less distance; the proceeds of all lotteries drawn in the State after the sums 
then granted upon them should be paid ; all the net proceeds of the Inland Lock 
Navigation Company, all the net proceeds of the canals, all donations or grants to 
the canals, and all the duties on sales at auction, after deducting $33,500 annually; 
and the Canal Commissioners were, in addition, to raise $250,000, by assessment 
upon the land lying twenty-five miles each side of the canal. In this act the Com¬ 
missioners were directed to commence the canal from the Mohawk river to the 
Seneca river, and from Lake Champlain to the Hudson river. The auction duties 
were the property of the city of New York, and were taken for the canals, because 
it was supposed that city would be benefited more than any other portion of the 
State. 

Applications were made to- the several States and to the General Government 
for donations of money or land, but, with the exception of the State of Ohio, the 
replies received were not satisfactory. That State, foreseeing the great benefits that 
the west would receive from the ‘Erie canal, made the following response : 

“ Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio , That this State will 
aid, as far as its resources will justify, in making the contemplated canal from Lake 
Erie to the Hudson river, in such a manner as may be deemed most advisable, 
when the plan or system which may be adopted by the State of New York for the 
accomplishment of that work may be known.” 

The fact that Ohio was not called upon to pay any thing for the canals does 
not lessen the credit she should receive for encouraging this great work of internal 
improvement. 


THE CANALS. 


449 


CHAPTER III. 

Building of the Erie Canal. — First Contractors. — Difficulties. — Completion of the 
Middle Section.— First Trip from Utica to Rome. — Celebration at Salina.— 
Inventions. — Completion of the Champlain Canal.—Completion of the Erie Canal 
from Albany to Buffalo.— Description of the Canal.— Its Length and Cost.— 
Labors of the Commissioners. — Their. Method of Paying the Contractors. — Dis¬ 
covery of Hydraulic Cement. — Laborers on the Canal. — Jiggers of Whisky.— 
Ceremonies at the Completion of the Erie Canal. 

Work was commenced on the Erie canal at Rome, July 4, 1817, with great 
ceremony. Colonel Young and Mr. ..Holley were present. Judge Richardson, the 
contractor, turned up the first shovelful of earth, and speeches were made predicting 
the benefits which would grow out of the construction of the canal. 

There were many difficulties to be encountered. There was no trained body of 
men who understood public work. Every thing had to be learned by experience. 
The contracts were taken by men of various pursuits — judges, lawyers, merchants, 
mechanics and farmers. Men of the highest standing in the community were repre¬ 
sented. There were no engineers experienced in the construction of canals; those 
employed were called surveyors, because their business had been to measure land. 
But whatever their previous experience they showed that they were equal to the 
emergency, and met and conquered all the difficulties. In the fall of the year 1817, 
the Champlain canal was commenced just south of Whitehall, Messrs. Melancthon 
Wheeler and Ezra Smith being the contractors. On the 1st of April, 1818, General 
Root moved the following section to the bill for providing funds for the canal: 
“ And be it further enacted, That the powers of the Commissioners of the Canal 
Fund to borrow money on the credit of the people of this State shall be and 
the same are hereby suspended till the whole of the stock-debt to be created by 
virtue of this act be redeemed.” The motion was lost. 

The Canal Commissioners appointed James Geddes to take charge of the 
Champlain canal, and Benjamin Wright chief engineer of the middle section of 
the Erie canal. Canvass White and Nathan S. Roberts, two assistant engineers, 
were spoken of in the report of the Commissioners as possessing unusual skill. 
Charles C. Brodhead was engaged in exploring beyond the work already com¬ 
menced, and Isaac Briggs was employed as an engineer between Utica and Rome. 

The canal was forty feet wide at the surface, twenty-eight feet wide at the 
bottom, and four feet deep. The locks were ninety feet long and twelve feet 
wide, of a size to admit a boat carrying one hundred tons. 

57 


450 


THE CANALS. 


January 25, 1819, Ephraim Hart was appointed Canal Commissioner, Mr. 
Ellicott having resigned, and on the 24th of March of the same year, Henry 
Seymour succeeded Mr. Hart. William C. Bouck was appointed Commissioner 
in 1821. 

In the session of 1819, the Legislature authorized the Commissioners to 

construct the canal from “the Seneca river to Lake Erie, between such point on 
the Mohawk river (where the middle section of the great western canal shall 
terminate) and the Hudson river, between Fort Edward and the navigable waters 
of the Hudson river, and between the great western canal and the salt works in 
Salina.” At the same time, the Commissioners of the Canal Fund were authorized 
to borrow $600,000 yearly, and the assessments on land lying within twenty-five 
miles of the canal were suspended. 

Among the most bitter opponents of the Erie canal were those living along 
the Oswego river and on the shores of Lake Ontario. They felt they were to 

be deprived of the commerce that had been theirs for so many years. To 
reconcile them, the Legislature, on the 13th day of April, 1819, passed a resolu¬ 
tion directing “ a survey to be made from the mouth of the Oswego river, up 
the same to Three River Point ; thence up the Seneca river to the outlet of 

Onondaga lake, and thence up the outlet, the length thereof, with a view of 
ascertaining the improvements of which the waters of those streams were suscep¬ 
tible, as respects their navigation.” 

On the 22d of October, 1819, ninety-six miles of the canal were finished, from 
Montezuma to Utica, including a side-cut at Salina, two miles in length. The com¬ 
pletion of so much of the canal was hailed with great joy, for the people felt that 
it was to be a source of wealth and prosperity to them as well as to the State. 

On November 24, 1819, the Champlain canal was opened from Fort Edward to 
Lake Champlain. The ensuing 4th of July, a grand celebration was held at 

Syracuse. 

The completion of ninety-six miles of canal in a little over two years would 
be a great achievement even now, but at that time was still more wonderful. 
The country through which it passed was almost a continuous swamp, covered 
with heavy timber. The late Benjamin H. Wright, son of the Chief Engineer, 
in a pamphlet on the origin of the Erie canal, says: 

“The writer was a lad, and volunteered in the survey of 1816, from this place 
(Rome), to Seneca river, then through an almost uninterrupted forest. According 
to his recollection, he can count upon the fingers of one hand the spots of cultivated 
ground: First, at Oneida creek, next at Canasaraga and Chittenango, next, with a 
few rods intermediate, at Syracuse, where there were at the time some half dozen 
houses; beyond that one or two more in a distance of eighty miles.” 


THE CANALS. 


45i 


There were no roads, and all the materials and stores had to be moved in 
winter, when the ground was frozen. The Commissioners, in their report, say: 

“The winter of 1818-1819 was so mild that there was no sleighing until the 
middle of March, and when the snow did come, it was of no advantage, because 
it fell in such quantities as to take the frost out of the ground, and so late as 
to melt quickly; the consequence was that the timber, stone, lime, sand, etc., could 
not be delivered until late in the spring, adding much to the delay and increasing 
the cost of the work.” 

There was no market, except at a distance, from which tools, nails, bolts, etc., 
could be brought. Much of the necessary machinery was invented during the 
progress of the canal. The wheelbarrow now in use was manufactured for the 
first time at Rome, by Jeremiah Brainard, one of the original contractors. The 
common derrick is mentioned as having been devised by a contractor at Lockport, 
to lift the rock out of the deep cut at the mountain ridge; and the stump machine 
was first used in clearing the land for the Erie canal. 

Low fevers attacked the workmen. In their report of 1820, the Commissioners 
say that between the middle of July and the first of October, from Salina to the 
Seneca river, a distance of thirty-three miles, a thousand men were disabled by 
sickness, the result of decaying vegetation. 

The cost of building the ninety-six miles of canal, including nine stone locks, 
was $1,125,983, or $11,792 per mile. 

The Champlain canal was completed September 10, 1823. This event was 
celebrated with great pomp by the city of Albany. A large party of gentlemen 
arrived from New York, in Chancellor Livingston’s steamboat, and took part in 
the festivities. At West Point they were joined by the United States officers, 
accompanied by a military band. A procession was formed, and met the Com¬ 
missioners at sunrise, at the junction of the canal, near Cohoes, where the last 
stone of the lock was laid, with masonic ceremonies; after which they were escorted 
down the river to Albany, where speeches were made, and great enthusiasm mani¬ 
fested. Two years after, on the 26th day of October, 1825, the Erie canal was 
completed from Buffalo to Albany. The greater part of the following description 
is by William L. Stone, Esq., and is taken from the volume published by the 
city of New York to celebrate the completion of the canal, omitting such portions 
as are too minute for the general reader: 

“ It commences at Little Buffalo creek, at the junction with which a guard- 
lock is placed, and extends about two miles parallel to the river bank to Black Rock 
harbor. From there to the foot of Square island there is no independent canal. 
A towing-path runs along the shore of the harbor, and navigation is protected 
by Bird island and Square island and the pier connecting them. From there the 


45 2 


THE CANALS. 


canal is built along the bank of Niagara river to the mouth of Tonawanda creek, 
ten miles from Buffalo, with a descent of half an inch in each mile, separated from 
the river by an earthen embankment. At the mouth of the creek is a dam of 
four feet six inches high, and the canal enters the pond formed by this dam. This 
creek has a descent of only one foot in twelve miles, and the canal follows the 
creek, or rather the creek follows the canal, these twelve miles having a tow-path 
formed along its bank. At the end of this distance, leaving the creek, a deep cut 
commences, which extends seven and a half miles in a north-easterly direction across 
what is called the Mountain Ridge, with about three miles of rock, averaging twenty 
feet in depth, and a descent of half an inch in each mile, to the brow of the 
mountain. A ride through this chasm for three miles on a canal-boat, between 
those formidable walls of solid rock, where nothing is to be seen above their sum¬ 
mits, though in the midst of a forest, is calculated to excite in the susceptible mind 
the most pleasing and singular sensations. These walls are from twenty to thirty 
feet high, and all the way perpendicular, though their surface is extremely uneven 
by the fracture in blasting. The tow-path in the deepest cutting is about one- 
third the distance down the wall, and sufficiently wide for two horses to pass. At 
this point the canal descends fifty-eight feet and seventy-five one-hundredths by a 
double set of combined locks, which empty into a natural basin at the head of the 
sixty-three-mile level, extending from Lockport to Rochester. This basin, connected 
with the stupendous succession of locks, and the chasm which has been cut through 
the mountain, is one of the most interesting places on the route, if not in the 
world, and presents one of the most striking evidences of human power and enter¬ 
prise which has hitherto been witnessed. A double set of locks, whose workman¬ 
ship will vie with the most splendid monuments of antiquity, rise majestically, one 
after the other, to the height of sixty-three feet. After passing over a monotonous 
level of sixty-two miles without a lock, the eye of the traveler is suddenly arrested 
by a formidable terrace of rocks, about eighty feet in height, forming the eastern 
extremity of the ‘ Mountain Ridge.’ The canal enters the terrace for a distance 
of about seventy or eighty rods through a natural ravine, forming a convenient 
harbor for one hundred boats or more. The terrace presents itself here in the 
form of two capes or promontories, with an abrupt elevation of eighty feet; the one 
on the right hand remains in a perfect state of nature; the one on the left hand 
has been cut away for some distance for the purpose of forming an embankment 
on the opposite side of the canal. Approaching Lockport from the east, nothing 
of the village can be seen until the boat is just doubling this cape, when in an 
instant the whole scene opens to view, and the sound of the bugle announces its 
approach. 

“ The singularly romantic appearance of this place, with its striking contrast and 
sudden transition from the odious monotony of the country below, must fill the mind 
of every traveler with peculiar delight as he approaches it from the east. After 
descending the locks before mentioned, at Lockport, the canal takes an easterly 
direction, about one to three miles south of the alluvial way or ridge road, with a 
descent of half an inch in each mile to the Genesee river at Rochester — sixty-three 
miles; in this distance it passes over several aqueducts and deep ravines; and arriving 


THE CANALS. 


453 


■c 


at the Genesee, crosses over that river in a stone aqueduct of nine arches, each of fifty 
feet span, and two other arches and aqueducts of forty feet each, one on each side 
of the river, over the mill canals. After passing the Genesee at Rochester, turning 
a little to the south, the canal receives a navigable feeder or branch canal from the 
river above the rapids and falls, two miles in length.” 

After describing minutely that portion of the canal which is between Rochester 
and Syracuse, Mr. Stone proceeds: 

“At Syracuse there is a lateral canal, or side-cut, of one mile and a half, leading 
down to the old village of Salina, with capacious basins at each end. At a dis¬ 
tance of one mile from Syracuse, the canal ascends two locks, of ten feet each. 
Here commences the long level of sixty-seven and a half miles, passing through 
the towns of Salina, in which it commences, Manlius, Sullivan, Lenox, Verona, 
Rome, Whitestown, Utica, etc., to Lrankfort, in Herkimer county, where it termi¬ 
nates, near Myers’ creek, by a lock of eight feet descent ; on this long level it 
passes over the Butternut, Limestone, Chittenango, Canasaraga, Oneida, Wood, 
Oriskany and Sadaquada creeks by aqueducts of various extent, having in its course 
crossed Madison and Oneida counties, a part of Onondaga, and entered the county 
of Herkimer. About six miles from Lrankfort the canal passes into a part of 
the old Inland Lock Navigation Company’s canal, running through a portion of 
the German Llats; thence following the canal one-third of a mile, leaving it and 
continuing three miles, to a lock of eight feet descent; thence level three miles 
to the head of Little Tails, where are five locks, each of eight feet descent, in 
the distance of one mile. Next to the ‘Mountain Ridge,’ before described, the 
construction of the canal at the Little Tails was the most formidable labor exe¬ 
cuted. During some mighty convulsion of nature, the waters of the west at a 
former period evidently tore for themselves a passage through what previously had 
been a barrier of mountain granite. The hills rise on either side to a height of 
nearly five hundred feet, and at one point the cragged promontories approximate 
nearly to the toss of a biscuit. Through the chasm the Mohawk tumbles over a 
rocky bed and falls, in the distance of half a mile, forty feet. 

“The old canal of the Inland Lock Navigation Company was constructed on 
the north side of the rapids, which affords a far more favorable route. The Erie 
canal runs upon the south side, the bed of which was excavated in the solid rock. 
The view is extremely wild and picturesque. Above, the rocks impend in rugged 
and fearful grandeur, while beneath, the foaming torrent of the Mohawk dashes 
from rock to rock until it leaps into a basin of great depth, and then steals tran¬ 
quilly through the rich vale extending to the falls of Cohoes. The village stands 
upon the north side, and is connected with the canal by a stupendous aqueduct 
thrown over the river by the means of three arches, namely, an elliptical one of 
seventy feet, embracing the whole stream in an ordinary state of its waters, with 
one on each side of fifty feet span, elevating the surface of the canal thirty feet 
above that of the river.” 

That portion of the canal which is between Schenectady and Albany is 
described by Mr. Stone as follows: 


454 


THE CANALS. 


“ The canal continues * * * * from Schenectady, four miles, through 

Niskayuna, to an aqueduct over the Mohawk river, seven hundred and forty-eight 
feet in length between the abutments, supported by sixteen piers twenty-five feet 
above the water, and immediately after passing the aqueduct there are three locks, 
each of seven feet descent, in Halfmoon, a few rods below Alexander’s mills and 
the bridge; thence level two miles, to a lock of seven feet descent; thence level 
one mile and a half, to a lock of seven feet descent; thence level three miles and 
a half, to a lock of seven feet descent; thence level five miles, passing over the 
Mohawk river by an aqueduct of nineteen hundred and eighty-eight feet in length 
between the abutments, resting on twenty-six piers; thence about three miles, to 
four locks of eight feet descent each; thence one mile and a quarter level, to three 
locks and a descent of twenty-six feet; thence level one mile and a half, to seven 
locks of emht feet descent each — here a feeder comes in from the Mohawk and 

o 

connects the Erie with the Champlain canal, and there are two locks of eleven 
feet descent each; thence level one mile and a half to a point in the rear of the 
old State arsenal, where there is a small basin, and a lock of eleven feet descent 
to the tide waters of the Hudson and into the great basin in the city of Albany.” 

The length of this work was three hundred and fifty-three and twenty-one one- 
hundredths miles. The Champlain canal was sixty-one miles long, making in all 
four hundred and fourteen and twenty-one one-hundredths miles of inland naviga¬ 
tion. The amount expended on both was $9,474,373.14. 

The accomplishment of the work excited admiration in this country and abroad. 
The short time which it took to complete the work and its small cost were matters 
of astonishment. The expense per mile, after deducting items not directly con¬ 
nected with the work, was $18,136. This was brought about by the rigid economy 
of those in charge. Mr. Holley, Mr. Young, Mr. Seymour, and afterward Mr. 
Bouck, were the active Commissioners who spent their entire time in managing it, 
and for this they only received $2,000 a year. The other Commissioners received no 
pay, but gave their advice as to the general character of the work. The economy, 
the speed, and the substantial manner in which it was done, is due to the fact 
that the Commissioners did not send agents to inspect the canal and pay the 
contractors, but they went themselves at the time of payment, talked with the con¬ 
tractors of the difficulties they had encountered, gave praise where it was deserved, 
and censure where they saw that it was needed. By this course they created a 

pride in the mind of the contractor, and a desire to do well. 

The labor of the Commissioners was very great; they had entire control of 
the management of the canals, employed the engineers, secured the right of way, 
settled contracts for labor, and paid claims for damages. The work was divided 
into half-mile sections, which increased the difficulty of keeping accounts but enabled 
poor men to take contracts. As no bonds were required, twenty per cent was 

retained from the monthly estimates to secure the faithful performance of the 


THE CANALS. 


455 


work. All the payments were made in cash. Each Commissioner, once a month, 

started in an open wagon with a trunk containing from $60,000 to $80,000, and 
drove along the canal to a tavern, where he met by appointment the engineers 
and contractors. The trunk was taken up stairs, while the accounts were settled 
in a room below; from time to time such money was brought down as was needed, 
until all the contractors were paid; then the horses were brought out and the Com¬ 
missioner went on to the next place. In this way, unarmed and without fear, he 
drove through a region almost a wilderness, often meeting gangs of men traveling 
about in search of work. 

In the report of 1819 mention is made of an important discovery by the 

engineer, Canvass White. The Commissioners say: 

“ The stone found along the line of the canal is all either gypsum, common 
limestone, or a kind of meagre limestone. Of the last we expect to make a very, 
important use, as by a number of small experiments in which, after being thoroughly 
burnt and slaked, or ground and mixed in equal portions with sand, it appears to 
form a cement that uniformly hardens under water.” 

Previous to this, quick-lime had been used in the body of the masonry, and 
the pointing made with Roman cement, or pozzuolana, but it was found that 
masonry built in this way failed after being subjected to frost. The cost of the 

Roman cement, which was imported, was so great, and so large a quantity was 

needed, that it would have embarrassed the building of the canal unless something 
had been found as a substitute. In 1825 the Commissioners estimated that five 
hundred thousand bushels of water-proof cement had been used in the construction 
of the canal. The limestone for this purpose was found in quantities in Madison, 
Onondaga, Cayuga, Ontario and Genesee counties. In their report for 1820 the 
Commissioners say : 

“In looking back to the numerous difficulties and responsibilities, some of 
them of an aspect the most disheartening, which surrounded the canals, especially 
in their commencement, we feel compelled by common justice to commend the aid 
which has been at all times afforded by our engineers. In the selection of all the 
persons who are now employed by us under this character we have been eminently 
fortunate. But to the Hon. Benjamin Wright and James Geddes the State is 
mostly indebted. They were the first appointed engineers; they have unceasingly 
and with improving fitness devoted their best faculties to the great cause in which 
they were engaged.” 

John B. Jervis was at this time employed as an assistant engineer at $1.25 
per day. 

The laborers on the canal were mostly Irish but a few were Scotch, and many of 
their children are now living on farms along the valley of the Mohawk. The price 


45 6 


THE CANALS. 


of labor was uniform, the rate being $10 a month and board, and a number of 
jiggers of whisky. The jigger was a small measure not more than one-third the size 
of an ordinary tumbler. When a laborer inquired of a foreman whether he wanted 
to employ help he did not ask, “What wages do you pay?” His question was, 
“How many jiggers do you give?” 

The canal was so violently opposed in some quarters of the State that strict 
economy was used. Heavy excavations and embankments were avoided. The line 
followed the surface of the ground by winding around the hills and following up 
the valleys, and also by locking up and down as the surface of the country rose 
and fell. At the Montezuma marshes the canal was locked down into the Seneca 
river, and up again on the other side, by four locks, to overcome the high ground 
on the Jordan level, and then descended by two locks to reach the valley of the 
Onondaga creek. 

• o 

The Commissioners at first, whenever a large stream was encountered, placed a 
dam below the line of the canal. The boats were towed across the pond, the 
horses going over on a bridge. This was abandoned, because the canal was liable 
to be overflowed and torn away, and it was found very difficult and dangerous to 
take boats across the pond at times of high water. 

The towing-path was very narrow, only sufficient for a single horse to pass, and 
it was not until after the enlargement that the driving of two horses abreast was 
permitted ; previous to this the team was arranged in tandem. 

The canal between Schenectady and Albany was carried across the Mohawk 
river on an aqueduct, seven hundred and forty-eight feet in length. Twelve miles 
beyond it crossed back again by another aqueduct of nineteen hundred and eighty 
feet. 

The completion of the Erie canal was celebrated throughout the State. Aider- 
man Elisha W. King and Alderman William A. Davis, a Committee of the Corpo¬ 
ration of the City of New York, proceeded to Buffalo, where they procured two 
barrels of the water of Lake Erie, which was to be mingled with the waters of the 
Ocean; and they also procured two logs of native red cedar and one of birds-eye 
maple, which were to be made into boxes to inclose medals to be presented to 
guests. The canal was formally opened October 26, 1825, when the military of 

Buffalo escorted the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and other distinguished guests 
to the boat Seneca Chief. As the boat started in the canal, followed by the 
Superior , and then by the Commodore Perry , a freight boat, a salute was fired, which 
was repeated from village to village, and from city to city along the entire line, and 
in the short space of an hour and twenty minutes, the glad news was proclaimed to 
the citizens of New York city, whence it was communicated to Sandy Hook; then 
a return salute was fired in the same way, reverberating among the Highlands, 


THE CANALS. 


457 


intensifying the excitement through the Hudson and Mohawk valleys, and the plains 
of Western New York, and thrilling as with a new life the people of the entire 
State. As the procession of boats continued on its way to tide water, ceremonies 
occurred at every place of importance, and at Albany were particularly imposing. 
The procession reached New York on the 4th of November, the formal ceremony 
being concluded by Governor Clinton, who poured the waters of the Erie into the 
Atlantic ocean, and festivities for several days occurred, closing on the evening of 
the 7th of November with a grand ball given by the leading citizens of New York. 


CHAPTER IV. 

Growth of the Country after the Building of the Erie Canal. — Navigation on the 
Canals. — Packet-Boats. — Competition with Railroads. — Description of Voyage 
on a Packet, by Duke of Saxe Wiemar. — Enlargement. — Panic. — Stop-law. — 
Constitution of 1846. — State Aid to Railroads. — Their Competition with the 
Canal. — Abolishing Toll on Railroads. — Constitutional Amendments of 1876. 

The prosperity that was to follow the completion of the Erie canal came 
sooner than the friends of the enterprise predicted. The canals, in their uncompleted 
state, paid $485,995.38 in tolls, not including the year 1825, and the revenue was 
constantly increasing, so that, if there had been no further expenditure, the whole 
debt would have been wiped out in 1836. The indirect benefits growing out of the 
construction of the work were also very great. The tide of emigration and commerce 
that had followed the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence, or the wagon roads through the 
State of Pennsylvania, was turned through our State. 

The population of New York State in 1814 was one million thirty-five 
thousand nine hundred and ten ; in 1835, it had increased to two millions one hun¬ 
dred and seventy-four thousand five hundred and seventeen. The county of 
Genesee, in 1810, reported twelve thousand five hundred and eighty-eight inhabit¬ 
ants; in 1830 it had fifty-one thousand nine hundred and ninety-two; while New 
York city, from 1814 to 1835, increased in population from ninety-five thousand five 
hundred and nineteen, to two hundred and seventy thousand and eighty-nine ; and 
in 1824, three thousand new houses were built. Niagara county in the same time 
increased from seven thousand four hundred and seventy-seven to twenty-six thou¬ 
sand four hundred and ninety. The counties remote from the line of the canal 
were equally benefited by this great work. Between the years 1814 and 1835 
Chautauqua county increased from four thousand two hundred and fifty-nine to 

58 




45 8 


THE CANALS. 


forty-four thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine; Allegany, from three thousand 
eight hundred and thirty-four to thirty-five thousand two hundred and fourteen; 
Steuben, from eleven thousand one hundred and twenty-one to forty-one thousand 
four hundred and thirty-five. The northern counties were equally benefited. In 
1814 the census returns gave Franklin two thousand five hundred and sixty-seven; 
St. Lawrence, eight thousand two hundred and fifty-two; and Clinton, seven thou¬ 
sand seven hundred and sixty-four. In 1835 Franklin had twelve thousand five 
hundred and one; St. Lawrence, forty-two thousand and forty-seven; and Clinton, 
twenty thousand seven hundred and forty-two. 

The chief reason for this wonderful growth was the increased facility and 
economy of transportation. The price of carrying by the turnpike was three times 
as great as by the canal. The comfort of traveling in a packet boat was much 
greater than by a stage, that often was nothing more than a covered wagon with¬ 
out springs. 

The Duke of Saxe-Weimar in 1825 and ’6 visited this country, and traveled on 
the Erie canal. He says : 

“ The packet boat which took us to Schenectady was seventy feet long, 

fourteen feet wide and drew two feet of water. It was covered and contained a 
spacious cabin, with a kitchen and was very neatly arranged, On account of the 
great number of locks the progress of our journey was but slow, our packet boat 
went only at the rate of three miles an hour, being detained at each lock on an 
average four minutes. The locks are fourteen feet wide above the surface, and 
have a fall from seven to twelve feet. The packet boat was drawn by three horses, 
which walked upon a narrow tow-path leading along the canal, and beneath the 
numerous bridges that are thrown over it. * * * * 

Mr. B. J. Lossing, the historian, thus describes a journey by packet in 1848. 

“ We supped and repaired to the packet office, where we waited till nine o'clock 
in the evening, before the shrill notes of a tin horn brayed out the annunciation 
of a packet near. Its deck was covered with passengers for the interesting cere¬ 
mony of converting the dining-room into a dormitory, or swinging the hammocks or 
berths and selecting their occupants had commenced, and all were driven out, much 
to their own comfort, but strange to say to the dissatisfaction of many who lazily 
preferred a sweltering lounge in the cabin to the delights of fresh air and the bright 
starlight. Having no interest in the scramble for beds, we enjoyed the evening 
breeze and the excitement of the tiny tumult. My companion, fearing the exhala¬ 
tions of the night air, did indeed finally seek shelter in one end of the cabin, but 
was driven, with two other young ladies, into the captain’s state-room, to allow the 
hands to have full play in making the beds.” 

The success of this great enterprise led many to suppose that canals would be 
profitable in any part of the country, and become a substitute for wagon roads. 
Robert Fulton’s belief in their value is shown in this extract from a letter to 


THE CANALS. 


459 


Thomas Mifflin, Governor of Pennsylvania: “I hope I shall see the time when 
canals will pass through every vale, wind round each hill, and bind the whole 
country together in bonds of social intercourse.” 

Petitions from all parts of the State flowed in upon the Legislature for canals. 

In 1820, the sum of $25,000 was appropriated out of the sales of land, and in 
1821, $50,000 from the sale of the salt reservation, for constructing a navigable com¬ 
munication from the Salina Branch canal to Onondaga lake, and from the lake to 
the Seneca river. In 1826 the canal was completed from Salina to Three River 
Point, where the Seneca and Oneida rivers unite to form the Oswego. Three large' 
dams were built on the Oswego river, and, in 1828, the canal was completed, at a 
cost of $525,115. The Cayuga and Seneca canal was finished in the same year, and 
cost the State $214,000. The route through Seneca Falls, and by way of Cayuga 
lake was adopted. An effort was made to carry the canal from Seneca lake to 

Lyons, but as this would have necessitated another canal from Cayuga lake to 

accommodate the people of that locality, it was abandoned. 

In 1832, the Chemung canal and feeder were completed, at a cost of $314,395, 
and in 1833 the Crooked Lake canal, which cost $136,101. The amount expended by 
the Commissioners of the Canal Fund, from April 15, 1817, to the end of September, 
1832, was $18,213,389. 

In 1833, after considering various routes for the termination of the Chenango 
canal, the one which followed the Oriskany and Sauquoit creeks, and joined the Erie 
canal about a mile east of the village of Whitestown, was chosen. The citizens of 
Utica, foreseeing that a canal, three miles away, would be of no advantage to them, 

offered to indemnify the State, if the Commissioners would terminate the canal at 

Utica. This indemnity amounted to $38,615.70, and a bond was given by a number 
of gentlemen for $80,000 as security. Three years afterward, an unsuccessful attempt 
was made to collect the amount agreed upon, by a tax on the real estate of the 
city. As these gentlemen were personally responsible, they petitioned the Legisla¬ 
ture for relief, and received a favorable report from the Committee on Canals, to 
which the matter was referred, canceling the bond on the ground that the State was 
benefited by the location of the canal at Utica, and that the Commissioners should 
have placed it there. 

From 1825 to 1833, the canal tolls had increased from $566,112 to $1,422,695, 
and the number of boats was so great, it was evident that the Erie canal should 
be enlarged. The Commissioners, in 1834, advised the doubling of the locks. They 
reported that during the last season the lock next west of Schenectady made twenty 
thousand lockages, and yet there was great delay. Up to this time the aqueducts 
were so narrow that boats could not pass. The next year, the following plan for 
the improvement of the canal was submitted: 


460 


THE CANALS. 


First. To construct double locks from Albany to Syracuse, of such size as 
should be deemed proper. 

Second. To rebuild the aqueduct across the Genesee river at Rochester. It was 
evident from this plan that the Commissioners felt the necessity of not only increas¬ 
ing the size of the locks, but also of the canal. The delays were occasioned by the 
want of water to make the lockages. The consequence of an increased capacity of 
the locks would be a demand for a larger canal to pass the requisite amount of 
water. The distances between the locks had been so arranged that the water could 
not be drawn down so low as to leave the boats on the bottom. If the locks were 
to be increased in size and number, their location would have to be changed, to 
afford the proper pond-reaches between them. 

While the question of enlarging the canal was being agitated, the attention of 
the people was attracted toward railroads. The Mohawk and Hudson railroad was 
chartered in 1826, but not opened for travel until 1831, when seventeen miles were 
completed between Albany and Schenectady. 

In 1832, the Saratoga and Schenectady railroad was opened, twenty-two miles in 
length, one mile of the New York and Harlem railroad, which was extended one 
mile during the next year, and the Buffalo and Black Rock railroad three miles. 

In 1834, twenty-nine miles of the Ithaca and Owego, and two miles of the New 
York and Harlem were opened to the public, in all, seventy-five miles of road. This 
represented but a small portion of the railroads contemplated, for by the end of the 
next season, no less than ninety-nine railroads were chartered, of which only twenty- 
one are now in existence. 

It was a question whether railroads might not be substituted for canals, and 
whether there was not greater economy in this method of transportation. In 1835, 
the Legislature requested the Canal Commissioners to report the relative cost per 
mile of canals and railroads, the comparative cost of keeping them in repair, and the 
expense of transportation. The Commissioners made a long report, calling to their 
aid John B. Jervis. Holmes Hutchinson, and Frederick C. Mills. These engineers 
made comparative reports of the cost of construction, the expense of keeping in 
repair, and the cost of transportation on the Baltimore and Ohio, and the Liverpool 
and Manchester railroads. 

In 1835, the lockages at a single lock had increased to twenty-five thousand 
seven hundred and eighty-nine. The effect of the previous reports of the engi¬ 
neers on the plan of doubling the locks convinced every one that no relief could 
be gained unless the canal was enlarged throughout. Therefore, on the nth of 
May, 1835, the Legislature authorized the Commissioners to enlarge the Erie 
canal, and construct double locks, the size of which was to be decided by the 
Canal Board. 


THE CANALS. 


461 


At a meeting in June, 1835, the Canal Board was of the opinion that a canal 
six feet deep and sixty feet wide would be sufficient. In October of the same 
year, they reconsidered their decision and agreed that the canal should be seventy 
feet wide and seven feet deep, with locks one hundred and ten feet long and 
eighteen feet wide. 

The new line of canal at Cohoes was located above the old one and farther 
to the south, giving a greater pond reach between the locks and reducing their 
number. At Little Falls the position of the locks was changed and the number 
reduced from five to four; one of the locks was placed in a branch of the 
Mohawk river, and a level that previously had been exceedingly narrow and 
crooked was very much improved. 

In the city of Utica it was found impossible to raise the surface of the 
water without making the bridges impassable. It was therefore determined to 
lower the canal three feet from Utica to Frankfort. At Rome the canal was 
changed to bring it through the center of the village. The canal was deepened 
two feet at Syracuse, and a lock was moved ten chains to the east. An aqueduct 
was built at Rochester of greater width than the old one and some distance farther 
south. A new tier of double locks was built at Lockport, and the rock cutting 
through the mountain ridge enlarged and deepened. Of the seventy-eight locks 
on the old canal, six were abandoned. 

In 1841, as the work of enlargement continued, it was found necessary to raise 
the level of the canal across the Montezuma marshes, and construct an aqueduct 
over the Seneca river. In addition to these, many changes were made which 
shortened the distance. 

The sudden growth and prosperity of the country created the wildest desire 
for speculation, which culminated in 1836. Land was sold at a higher price than 
it has ever reached since. People in great numbers left the New England and 
Middle States and migrated to Ohio, Indiana and the neighboring States, confident 
that they would become the possessors of great fortunes in a few years. 

Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland partook of the 
excitement. 

In 1837 the reaction commenced and ruin followed; banks failed, land became 
worthless, and States repudiated their debts. 

In 1838, while the improvements of the canal were in process, the State debt 
was being rapidly paid. But the large expenditure of money created a spirit of 
extravagance. Plans for the enlargement of the canal, to cost $40,000,000, were 
generally talked of. From 1838 to 1842, between $18,000000 and $19,000,000 
were added to the State debt, with the Black River and the Genesee Valley canals 
in an unfinished condition, and the Erie canal enlargement not half completed. 


462 


THE CANALS. 


During the same period it had paid nearly $12,000,000 into the treasury, a sum that 
would have made all the lateral improvements, and left as large an amount as could 
each year be economically expended on the enlargement. In 1842, the opposition to 
the canals was such as to secure the passage of a law stopping the work, and 
providing for the settlement of all contracts. This was a season of the greatest 
depression. January 1, 1842, the State debt was $26,000,000, and the State stock 
twenty per cent below par. On July 1st, $3,000,000 of State paper was due with¬ 
out any provision to pay it. 

The outgrowth of the financial depression of 1837 was the convention of 
1846, which changed the Constitution of the State in regard to the canals in two 
particulars; it took away from the Legislature the right to create a debt, except 
for a limited amount, and it put upon the canals an obligation to pay, not only 
all moneys spent in their construction, but, in addition to this, $350,000 yearly, 
toward the principal and interest of the general fund debt, including the debt for 
loans of the State to railroad companies and other corporations that failed to pay 
interest; also, $200,000 yearly to defray the necessary expenses of the State. 

The yearly charges upon the revenues of the canals under this Constitution 


were: 

To canal sinking-fund debt, ------- $1,700,000 

To general sinking-fund debt, ------- 350,000 

To support the Government, 200,000 

Total, - - - -.$2,250,000 


This amount was to be paid after the expenses of collection, superintendence 
and ordinary repairs were provided for, and the remainder was to be applied to the 
Erie canal enlargement, and to the completion of Black River and Genesee Val¬ 
ley canals. It was supposed that the canals would pay this debt within twenty- 
three years, and they would have done so but for the privileges granted to rail¬ 
roads. The debt of the canals at this time was assumed to be $23,851,575.66, 
but, in order to reach this amount, they were charged with all the auxiliary funds 
which were raised for their construction. The following, from the chairman of 
the Canal Committee in 1844, shows this: 

“It is apparent that at the time these works were commenced these funds were 
selected or created for the object, because there was an intimate and natural connec¬ 
tion between the sources from which they were derived and the object to which 
they were applied. Indeed, some of these revenues owe their existence almost as 
directly to the canals as the tolls levied upon the property transported on them. 
The auxiliary funds were: first, the proceeds of land given by individuals in con¬ 
sideration of the great advantages which they derived from the construction of the 






THE CANALS. 


463 


Erie canal; second, a tax upon steamboat passengers, which was imposed, it would 
appear from an early document, with the assent of those interested in steamboats 
on the Hudson river, in consideration of the great advantages which they were to 
derive from the increased number of passengers; third, a duty on salt manufactured 
in the western part of this State. Previous to the construction of the Erie canal 
the quantity of salt manufactured was small, and the revenue derived from it was 
trifling, and the canals were given no credit for transporting the fuel, which they 
did free of charge, and which constituted the chief expense of its manufacture; 
fourth, the auction duties which were originally imposed by the city of New 
York for its own benefit, and which were appropriated for the building of the 
canals because of the advantage which New York would derive from its construc¬ 
tion.” 

The burden imposed upon the canals was not intended to cripple them, but 
to prevent their revenues from being used to aid other enterprises. 

In the convention, propositions were made to permit the Legislature to use 
the revenues of the canals upon the building of railroads and other public works. 
The new Constitution provided for the election of a State Engineer and Surveyor. 
Previously the Canal Commissioners had appointed the engineers, and had them¬ 
selves been appointed by the Legislature. Three Canal Commissioners were to 
be elected, to serve three years. This change took effect January 1, 1848. 

The feeling which was created against the canals by the hard times prevented 
any appropriation of money for the enlargement until 1847. The new Constitution 
was such a check upon the expenditures that confidence was restored, and an 
appropriation was made of over a million of dollars for the improvement of the 
Erie, Genesee Valley, Black River, Oneida River, and Oswego canals. The Wel¬ 
land canal was completed in 1833 by a private corporation, with locks one hun¬ 
dred and ten feet long and twenty-two feet wide. In 1841 it passed into the 
hands of the Canadian Government, and they commenced to enlarge it so as to 
pass the largest class of vessels then navigating the lakes. The canal was to be 
twenty-six feet wide on the bottom, and nine feet deep; the locks were to be of 
stone, one hundred and fifty feet long, and twenty-six and a half feet wide. The 
work was not completed until 1853, but before that time the Erie canal, with 
locks only ninety feet long and twelve feet wide, and the water but four feet 
deep, began to feel the effect of its competition. 

In 1835, of the one hundred and twenty-eight thousand five hundred and fifty- 
two tons of wheat and flour arriving at tide water but thirty thousand eight hun¬ 
dred and twenty-three tons were shipped at Buffalo and Oswego, showing that 
most of the wheat and flour came from our own State. In 1844 the percentage 
had changed; out of two hundred and seventy-seven thousand eight hundred and 
three tons of flour and grain arriving at tide water, two hundred and three thou- 


4 6 4 


THE CANALS. 


sand four hundred and seventy-two tons were shipped at Buffalo, Black Rock and 
Oswego; or, in nine years the amount of grain going over the canal from other 
States had increased from twenty-four per cent to seventy-four per cent. Montreal 
and New Orleans were competing again for the business of the country. In 
1817 it was the business of our own State that was being diverted; now the 
competition was for the grain trade of the West. In 1844 the Welland canal 
enabled Oswego to ship grain through Lake Ontario by the Oswego and Erie 
canal to New York cheaper than it could be carried from Buffalo to New York. 
To prevent this, the western part of the State petitioned the Legislature to impose 
the same tolls on freight from Osw r ego as from Buffalo. This request was not 
granted. 

The work of enlarging the canal was continued from this time until 1862, 
when, by an act of the Legislature, it was declared completed. The canal was 
seven feet deep, seventy-two feet wide on the surface, fifty-six feet wide at the 
bottom, the locks were one hundred and ten feet long between quoins, and eighteen 
feet wide, allowing the passage of boats carrying two hundred and forty tons. 

In addition to the cost of the Erie canal, which was $52,491,915.74, the State 
expended on the lateral canals the following amounts : 


NAME. 

Date of 
Completion. 

Length in 
Miles. 

Cost. 

Oswego canal, ---------- 

1862 

38 

$3,612,825 II 

Cayuga and Seneca canal, ------- 

1862 

23 

1 >S 8 4 jS 54 °9 

Champlain canal and feeder, ------- 

1837 

78 

2,647,002 34 

Black River canal, - -- -- -- - 

1861 

5 ° 

4,239,566 75 

Genesee Valley canal, - -- -- -- - 

1861 

124.75 

9,408,896 19 

Chenango canal, --------- 

1836 

97 

3 > 754 >i 43 80 

Chemung canal and feeder,. 

183 1 

39 

1,623,693 42 

Crooked Lake canal, -------- 

i8 33 

8 

418,890 96 

Oneida Lake canal, --------- 

1836 

7 

74,916 09 

Oneida River improvement, ------- 

1850 

20 

i73>348 54 

Baldwinsville canal,.- 

i8 39 

5-75 

16,585 13 

Total, - 



$27,554,422 42 


The Oswego canal, by the construction of eight dams, made water powers of the 
greatest value, and utilized the Oswego river, which, drawing its supply from Cayuga, 
Seneca, Skaneateles, Owasco, Cazenovia and Oneida lakes, and from the Montezuma 
marshes, affords one of the most remarkable water powers in the country. 

The Cayuga and Seneca canals, in connection with the Chemung canal and 
feeder, allowed the lumber that grew in the southern counties of this State, and in 
northern Pennsylvania along the Chemung and the Tioga rivers, to reach market. 
The Chenango canal formed a connection with the coal fields of Pennsylvania, and 
cheapened the cost of fuel throughout the State. 


















THE CANALS. 


465 


The Black River and the Genesee Valley canals allowed the lumber from the 
North and South to come to market. The Champlain canal made a continuous 
navigation from the St. Lawrence river to New York, and gave an outlet for the 
valuable iron products of that region. But the State did not confine its liberality 
to canals ; it aided largely in building railroads, and in the early days aided several 
companies by loaning them large amounts. Only a part of these loans was repaid, 
the remainder was finally charged to the State debt. The roads aided were as 
follows : 


RAILROADS. 

Date. 

Loaned. 

Paid back. 

Charged to 
State debt. 

New York and Erie railroad, - 

1836 

$3,000,000 


$3,000,000 

Canajoharie and Catskill railroad, - - - 

1838 

200,000 

- 

200,000 

Ithaca and Owego railroad, ----- 

1838 

3 ! 5 > 7 °° 

- 

3 I 5’7°° 

Auburn and Syracuse railroad, - - - - 

1840 

200,000 

$200,000 


Auburn and Rochester railroad, ----- 

1841 

200,000 

200,000 


Hudson and Berkshire railroad, - - - - 

1840 

150,000 

- 

150,000 

Tonawanda railroad, - ... - - - - 

1841 

100,000 

100,000 


Long Island railroad, - - - - . - 

1841 

100,000 

100,000 


Troy and Schenectady railroad, ----- 

1841 

100,000 

100,000 



The Canajoharie and Catskill road was partially graded, but eventually it was 
abandoned, and the State lost the amount loaned. The Ithaca and Owego road 
was built, but was badly in debt and was sold by the Comptroller at public sale on 
the 20th day of May, 1842, to Archibald McIntyre, for the sum of $4,500. The 
purchasers formed a new organization under the name of the Cayuga and Susque¬ 
hanna Railroad Company, which is now in operation. The Hudson and Berkshire 
railroad was sold by the Comptroller in 1854, and reorganized by the purchasers 
under the name of the Hudson and Boston Railroad Company, which was consoli¬ 
dated with the Boston and Albany railroad in 1871, and is now running. The New 
York and Erie railroad was sold under foreclosure of mortgage in 1861, and reor¬ 
ganized as the Erie Railway Company. It continued under that name until the 24th 
of April, 1878, when it was again sold upon foreclosure of mortgage, and reorganized 
under the name of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company. Of 
the five roads receiving aid which repaid the loans of the State, four of them form 
part of the New York Central and Hudson River railroad, the other is the Long 
Island railroad. 

Nor was this the only assistance given to railroad corporations. 

In the charter of the first railroad company (the Mohawk and Hudson, and now 
part of the New York Central and Hudson River railroad) in 1826, the company 
was not allowed to charge for transportation an amount exceeding the cost of the 
transportation of the same property upon the Erie canal at that time. 

59 















466 


THE CANALS. 


In the charter incorporating the Utica and Schenectady portion of the New 
York Central and Hudson River railroad, the company was restricted from charging 
more than four cents per mile for each passenger and his ordinary baggage, and in 
the act of the Legislature in 1834, incorporating the Auburn and Syracuse portion 
of the New York Central and Hudson River railroad, the charge for passengers was 
the same as that of the Utica and Schenectady road, and the company was required 
to pay to the Commissioners of the Canal Fund the same toll on all goods and 
other property, except the ordinary baggage of passengers, as on the Erie canal. 

The act incorporating the Syracuse and Utica part of the New York Central 
and Hudson River railroad allowed the company to charge four cents per mile for 
passengers and baggage, and required the company, during such portions of the year 
as the Erie canal was navigable, to pay the same tolls. 

The Syracuse and Utica Railroad Company, in their report for 1848 and 1850, 
complain that they are required to pay these tolls. They say in 1848: “The canal 
tolls imposed upon this line of railroad have the effect largely to diminish the 
business of transportation.” And in 1850: 

“It is now found that the tolls required by the State on all property trans¬ 
ported by the company are a serious embarrassment to its business. They are 
considered as an unjust and improper discrimination, because other and competing 
lines are free from them. The Erie railroad and the Northern railroad are both 
unrestricted in this respect. As these roads are notv open for transportation, it is 
respectfully submitted that the same general policy should be applied to them, that 
controls this line ; the whole should be compelled to pay tolls, or all should be 
exempt. The tolls now limit the business of the company, and, of course, deprive 
the public of the lower rate of charge on the transportation of persons and property 
which would otherwise be fixed. They lessen the production of the country in the 
vicinity of the railroad, because if there were no tolls, the transportation would be 
so reduced as that the growth and manufacture of many articles would be thereby 
stimulated. 

“Transportation on the railroad would be reduced to the lowest compensating 
scale if it were not for these tolls. They now form about one-fourth of the average 
prices charged. It is first to the benefit of the producer and consumer to take off 
these tolls, and next to the company, if the quantity of property carried shall be 
thereby increased, as it doubtless will be. The State treasury does not require 
these tolls. The great business of the canal cannot be affected by the limited 
amount which the railroads will carry. The canal will take care of itself. As soon 
as the tolls were taken off from fresh meats, cattle, etc., the price of transportation 
was immediately reduced more than the amount of the tolls. So it would be in all 
instances if the tolls were taken off. The amount of property to be carried would 
be considerably increased, and the general business of the country thereby aided. 
It is not expected that the classes of property to which canal transportation is the 
best adapted would be in any degree withdrawn from the canals.” 


THE CANALS. 


467 


1 he argument that had the greatest force with the Legislature to induce them 
to take off tolls on railroads was that it was unjust to tax the commerce of 
other States in passing to the sea-board. 

In 1853 the Legislature granted to the different roads that now form the 
New York Central the right to consolidate, but this was not done without great 
opposition on the part of those who feared the railroads would endeavor to injure 
the canal if all the separate companies were combined into one corporation. 

The objections to giving railroads the right to consolidate and carry freight 
without tolls were overruled by the desire to build up the commerce of the State. 
Before the tolls were taken off, and the connections were made to Buffalo, rail¬ 
roads did not do a grain business, but were confined exclusively to the transporta¬ 
tion of passengers. In 1848 the Syracuse and Utica railroad, now a part of the 
New York Central railroad, carried thirteen thousand four hundred and seventy 
barrels of flour; ten bushels of wheat; four hundred and sixty-one bushels of 
barley; no corn or rye was transported. But as soon as the right to carry, free 
of tolls, was gained, they sprang into rivalry with the canals. In 1855 they carried 
six hundred and seventy thousand and seventy-three tons of freight, two hundred 
and forty-four thousand six hundred and five of which were flour and grain. 

In 1854 a law was passed, authorizing the Canal Commissioners to contract 
for the repairs of the canal. The contractors were to keep the canal in order, 
and furnish^ men to operate the locks. After a few years, this system was found 
to be disadvaritageous to the State, and was abolished. 

On the 1 st of January, 1877, two amendments to the Constitution took effect. 
One providing that no more should be spent upon the canals in any year than 
the gross receipts of the previous year. The other that the powers of the Canal 
Commissioners should be transferred to a Superintendent of Public Works, who 
should appoint all persons employed in the care and management of the canal, 
except collectors of tolls, and those in the department of the State Engineer and 
Surveyor. In 1876 a law was passed, providing that hereafter all the engineers 
employed upon the canals of the State should be appointed by the State Engineer 
and Surveyor. These alterations in the Constitution and the laws have made a 
great change for the better in the management of the canals. The people are 
no longer taxed to pay for unnecessary and costly work, and the responsibility is 
placed where it should be — on the heads of the departments. 


468 


THE CANALS. 


CHAPTER V. 

Future of the Erie Canal.—Competition of Mississippi and other routes. — Methods 
of Cheapening Transportation on American Water-routes. — Deeper Water-way. — 
Free Canal. — Future. 

New York State, from being second in point of numbers and commercial 
importance, has become the first in the Union. Before the canal was built there 

were few inhabitants in the western part of the State, and settlers could with 
difficulty supply their wants. In the early days it cost from $80 to $100 a ton 
to transport merchandise from Albany to Buffalo, while during the season of 1880 
the cost was less than $2. From the Atlantic Ocean the canal has built up a 

succession of cities and villages that, in their rapid growth, are almost unequaled. 
This prosperity is due to the wisdom and patriotism of our forefathers, who, 
when the State had but a million inhabitants, were willing to incur a debt of 
over $7,000,000 to divert the trade from Montreal and New Orleans. They not 
only built the Erie canal, a work that has paid over $42,000,000 above the cost 
of its construction, superintendence and repairs, but, recognizing the fact -that all 
parts of the State should be developed, they made eleven canals for the benefit 
of other counties remote from the line of the Erie canal, that have cost the State 
many millions of dollars more than they have paid in tolls. This deficiency has 
been supplied from the revenues of the Erie canal and from taxes levied upon all 

parts of the State. If it were not for the lateral canals and the liberality of the 

State to railroads, the Erie canal would have paid vastly larger amounts into the 
treasury. The expenditure of this money has been of the greatest value to all 
parts of the State. It has built up home markets and increased the value of 
domestic products. 

The Erie canal, in 1880, carried six million four hundred and sixty-two thou¬ 
sand and ninety tons. To transact this business it required five thousand boats 
and fifty thousand men, and the value of the property carried is estimated at 
$247,844,790. This business gave employment to carpenters, blacksmiths, painters 
and farmers. The money spent through the State to feed the men and teams 
and furnish the necessary supplies for the boats, during the season of navigation, 
is estimated at $7,500,000, while the expenditures for keeping the canals in repair 
were less than $1,000,000. 

The large increase in the amount of business carried on by the canals has 
been accompanied by a decrease in the rate of tolls and freight both upon the 


THE CANALS. 


469 


lakes and canal. The low cost of carrying has changed the balance of trade in 
our favor, and has enabled us to send our products abroad and compete in the 
markets of the world. The cheap rates have increased largely the area in the 
West that can afford to send its grain to market, and has extended the territory 

in Europe in which we can sell our grain at a profit. 

In a few years British steamships of nearly two thousand tons will lie at the 
docks of Chicago and other lakeports, unloading their merchandise or receiving their 
cargoes of grain, provisions, etc. While we have undervalued and neglected our 
water channels, the British Government has steadily pursued a policy which will 
give it a water-way into the heart of our country, and which will make seaports 

of our great lake cities, with which it can hold direct communication by a route 

under its sole control, through the St. Lawrence river. Few commercial events of 
the century equal the importance of the completion of this design. At Cleveland 
and Toledo, in Ohio, British vessels will approach near to the center of popula¬ 
tion and production of our Union, which is now north of Cincinnati. The center, 

as shown by the census reports, is steadily moving toward a point between Chicago 

and St. Louis, two great cities, which are even now of more commercial import¬ 
ance than any in our country except New York. Boston, New York, Philadelphia 
and Baltimore are marginal towns lying upon the eastern edge of our continent, 
and remote from the great center of population and production. 

From Chicago to the foot of Lake Erie, on the western borders of this State, 
the British will have the use, in common with ourselves, of the lakes. They will 
not have to tranship or elevate their grain as Americans must do, who send it 
by the Erie canal or by the railroads; they can continue their voyage through 
Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence, and the Ocean to Europe, without making changes 
of cargo, and free from all charges for storage, elevating, etc. They will only 
have to pay tolls at the lock on the Welland canal, and on the river above 

Montreal. On the other hand, the products that go through our State must be 
transhipped at Buffalo or Oswego ; must pay elevating, canal or railroad charges, 
and in New York must be warehoused or put into vessels. 

We now find ourselves carried back to the question that agitated our State 

more than sixty years ago, and led to the construction of the Erie canal. The 
British are so confident that they will wrest the trade of the West from us, that 
they have nearly completed works that will cost more than $30,000,000. This is 
in addition to about $20,000,000 spent in early improvements, making about 
$50,000,000 paid to gain the great prize they seek — the control of the carrying- 
trade from the heart of our country to the markets of the world. They do not 
fear our railroads. While we are neglecting our water-routes, they spare no cost 
to perfect theirs. This is the greatest danger that threatens our commerce. It 


4 ?o 


THE CANALS. 


concerns all classes of citizens, and all methods of transportation. The General 

Government is spending millions to divert the commerce from New York, by 
improving the Mississippi. Of the money raised to do this work, New York pays 
more than any other State. Barges of large size float down the Mississippi to 
New Orleans, carrying sometimes, in a single tow, twenty thousand tons. Here 

the grain is transhipped for Europe. Contracts have been made for transporting 
grain from St. Louis to Liverpool, by the way of New Orleans, during the past 
season, for thirteen cents a bushel. 

It is estimated bv those engaged j n the business that when the Welland and 
St. Lawrence canals are completed, grain can be carried from Chicago to Montreal 
for five cents a bushel. 

These prices are less than can be afforded by the lakes and the Erie canal, 
and the question arises, how is New York to maintain her commercial suprem¬ 
acy? This is a very momentous question; it interests not only New York city, 

but all sections of the State, not only the boatmen and the fifty thousand men 
connected with the canals, but farmers, manufacturers and professional men. Relief 
cannot be sought from the railroads. Already they have discriminated against 
New York, and may do so again as soon as new combinations are formed. New 
York must rely upon the American water-route, consisting of the lakes, the Erie 

canal and the Hudson river, to save its commerce; but, in order to do so, trans¬ 

portation must be cheapened. This can be done by increasing the depth of 
water. The General Government is engaged in improving the channels between 

the lakes to give sixteen feet depth of water. Buffalo harbor should be improved 
in the same way. The draught of water now is but twelve feet, while vessels 
going through the Welland canal can be loaded to fourteen feet. Lor even- foot 

of increase in draught, two hundred and fifty tons can be added to the load of 

the large propellers and barges on the lakes without extra cost. If the channel 
between the lakes and Buffalo harbor were deepened to twenty feet, vessels would 
be enabled to carry one thousand tons more than those going through the Welland 
canal. This difference would control the trade. The Hudson river within a few 
years has been greatly improved by General Newton, of the United States Army. 
Vessels drawing ten feet' of water are now able to go to Albany in any stage of 
the tide. But a few years ago the depth of water would not admit vessels loaded 
to six feet. Single tows containing one hundred canal boats, representing eight 
hundred thousand bushels of grain, are now taken down the river. The same rea¬ 
soning applies to the Erie canal. The present boat is loaded to within a foot of 
the bottom of the canal. If the water should be low or sediment should accumu¬ 
late, this would be reduced to a few inches. The engineers who planned the 
enlarged canals, Jervis, Hutchinson, Mills and Roberts, did not contemplate such 


THE CANALS. 


47 i 


large boats as are now used. Their idea was of a vessel drawing five feet of 
water, and carrying one hundred to one hundred and twenty tons. If they had 
been making a canal for boats such as are now used, of two hundred and forty tons, 
loaded to six feet, they would have made the depth nine feet instead of seven. 
Unless the proper proportion between the size of the boats and the canal is pre¬ 
served there can be no economy in transportation. There is great economy in 
large cargoes, but this is destroyed if the water-way is not deep and wide. The 
propellers on the lakes carry freight cheaper than the boats on the Erie canal, but 
if they were placed in a narrow channel, with but a foot of water under them, 
the advantage they possess would disappear. The present canal boat carries two 
hundred and forty tons, and weighs sixty tons, while the lake propeller weighs 
twelve hundred tons, and carries twenty-four hundred tons. 

The ocean steamship weighs about the same as her cargo. The propellers 

cost $68 to every ton carried, while the canal boat costs but $13 per ton. It 
would, therefore, be unwise to use the expensive boats fitted for the rough water. 
It would be cheaper to transfer the cargo to such vessels as are suitable for the 
canal. The Erie canal boats are the largest that have ever been successfully used 

on any canal in this country; they are capable of being loaded to draw seven feet 

of water. If the Erie canal were deepened, as was the Delaware and Raritan 
canal, by raising the banks and deepening the prism, the boats now running, with¬ 
out extra expense, could carry fifty tons more cargo and make more trips in a 
season. This would decrease the cost of transportation one-fifth, making a saving, 
at the present rates of carrying, of one cent a bushel. The cost of this improve¬ 
ment would be about $1,000,000, and would be paid back in the increased commerce 
and lower prices at which lumber, stone and other articles that furnish employment 
to our mechanics and laborers could be transported. These improvements will do 
much to save our commerce. But the State must make the canals free. It is 
not a question of how much they pay, but how much they carry. If we possessed 
the only outlet for the commerce of the country, we might charge a high price 

for allowing it to pass through our State. But we have but one of many routes to 
the sea-board by which the west can send its produce, and all of these are doing 
their utmost to take our trade from us, and have partially succeeded. While New 

York has fallen off in the percentage of all the grain exported as compared with 

other ports, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and New Orleans have increased. New 
York has been idle while these cities have devoted all their energies to take our 

commerce away from us. The West seeks the cheapest outlet for its grain and 

cannot be restrained by any sentiment. Canada has spent $50,000,000 to improve 
her water-ways, and the States bordering on the Mississippi are holding conventions 
to induce Congress to spend still more money to improve that river. New York 


472 


THE CANALS. 


hesitates about a tax that amounts to less than $1,000,000 annually, to save a 

commerce that, during the past season, was estimated at nearly $250,000,000. 

The State hesitates to pay money for a free canal, when the increase in the 

commerce produced, will every year more than repay the outlay. There should 
be no taxation upon either railroads or canals, for every tax upon transportation 

is a tax upon the people. To make the canal free will cost the people no more 

than it does to draw money from them in the form of tolls. It is simply a 
question whether taxes shalj be drawn from our mechanics and laboring men in 
an unequal way, or shall be taken from all classes by a well-devised system of 

assessments. All of the commercial, manufacturing, mechanical, and agricultural 
interests of the State are now endangered by efforts made in other quarters to 

turn away transportation from the State of New York. The citizens of the counties 
away from the canal are interested in the building of every house in the city of 
New York, for every increase in the valuation of its property takes away just 

so much from their taxes. The growth of cities in the State gives a home 

market for articles that will not bear transportation. 

With an increase in the depth of water, and a free canal, New York is safe 
against the competition of the other routes. The home consumption takes the 

largest share of all that is raised in the West. The produce which the West 
sends to the sea-board or to Europe through this State has a choice of markets. 
When grain and provisions reach New York, the owners have the choice of sell¬ 
ing here, or of sending into adjoining States, or of shipping to a great number 
of foreign ports, in Europe or South America. Whatever is sent by the St. 
Lawrence, as well as by the Mississippi, will lose this advantage. Trade will 
follow the broadest and deepest channels, although the expense may be something 
more than that of other routes. If a wise and liberal policy is followed, it will 
reduce the advantages of the Mississippi and Canadian route to that degree, that 
it will not take away from us the great advantages we now enjoy. But we must 
not underrate the danger that threatens us, or fall into the error of thinking that 

we can keep, without effort, an enriching commerce which other States, as well 

as the British Government, are trying to wrest from us. 


FREE! 


THE CANALS, 


Letter from Honorable HORATIO SEYMOUR, Ex-Governor of New York. 

Utica, New York, November 24, 1882. 

To the Editors of “The Public Service of the State of New York:” 

Since the above article was prepared for the press by the late State Engineer, 
the people of New York, by a large majority, have decided that its canals shall 
be free channels of commerce. This will not merely tend to secure the commerce 
of the State for the reason set forth by him, but it will benefit the whole country. 
The removal of hurtful provisions of our Constitution, as it stood before this action 
making our canals free, will encourage plans for cheapening transportation by improv¬ 
ing boats and methods of propelling them which would not be attempted while this 
dangerous provision of the Constitution threatened at all times an immediate destruc¬ 
tion of the whole value of investments. New life and hope have been given to 
forwarders and boatmen, and plans will be devised that will cost but a trifling 
sum and that will be brought into use by gradual steps, which will avoid expense 
to the State or disappointment to parties who are engaged in their perfection. 

But looking merely at the advantages to our State and commercial men and 
farmers, growing out of the Constitutional amendment, is taking too narrow a view 
of the importance of this change. New York has served our whole country by 
its enlarged and liberal policy, as it did by the original construction of the Erie 
canal. The cost of carrying our products to the markets of the world will be 
cut down upon all routes. In the past, while our food was needed to supply the 
wants of Europe, we were compelled, by the charges for transportation, in many 
instances to use our Indian corn for fuel. Of late years, ocean freights and reduc¬ 
tion of tolls within the limits of our own territories have enabled us to sell much 
of our produce, but our markets in Europe are not yet firmly established. Those 
engaged in every branch of business, whether of farming or manufacturing, anxiously 
inquire each year if there will be a demand in Europe for what we raise. Already 
the people of different sections of our Union and of Canada are agitating the 
60 [ 473 ] 


474 


THE CANALS. 


question of abolishing the taxes on carrying our farmers’ products. It is pleasant 
to see the people of New York acting with this grand spirit of their fathers, when 
they resolved, although assistance was refused by the General Government and 
the States to aid them in this great project, to unite the interior of our continent 
with the Atlantic States by a water route which would promote not only the pros¬ 
perity of the State of New York but our whole country. Their enlarged and 
liberal policy not only gave growth and greatness to this State but to the whole 
Union, and a like result will follow the policy of to-day, conceived in the same 
spirit. No citizen of New York can read without pride the preamble to a reso¬ 
lution for making the original Erie canal, adopted when New York was inferior 
in population and wealth to Massachusetts or Virginia. 

It is pleasant to find that now, in its days of power and prosperity, it shows 
the same generous and patriotic purpose which animated its citizens more than half 
a century ago, when, through their Legislature, they adopted a preamble to a 
measure designed for this purpose, in which they asserted that 

“Whereas, Navigable communication between Lakes Erie and Champlain and 
the Atlantic ocean, by means of canals connected with the Hudson river, will pro¬ 
mote agriculture, manufacture and commerce, and enhance the benefits and consoli¬ 
date the Union, and advance the prosperity and elevate the character of the United 
States, that therefore it was the incumbent duty of the people of this State to avail 
themselves of the means which the Almighty has placed in their power for the 
production of such signal, extensive and lasting benefits.” 











GRAND CENTRAL DEPOT, NEW YORK CITY. 









































RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION* 


By STEPHEN C. HUTCHINS. 


There be three things which make a Nation great and prosperous—a fertile soil, busy workshops, and easy conveyance 

of men and things from one place to another. — Bacon. 


CHAPTER I. 

First Use of Rails as a Bed for Cars; Rude Wooden Structures. — Introduction 
and Improvement of Iron Rails. — Steam Carriages; Trevithick; Evans; Blen- 
kinsop; Stevens; Hadley and “Puffing Billy.” — First Passenger Railway in 
England. — First Charter for a Passenger Railway in the United States: the 
Mohawk and Hudson. — History of its Construction. — Possibility that it might 
Reduce the Tolls on the Erie Canal; a clear Gift of Prophecy.—Its Early 
Struggles. — Early and Remarkable Movement in Massachusetts to Secure a 
Western Railroad.—Co-operation of New York.—First Locomotives in America.— 
First Trips on the Mohawk and Hudson.—The Road Formally Opened. — The 
State Electrified. 


Jlf HE first instance of the use of rails as a bed for cars, of which there is any 
record, was in 1676, at which time they were employed at the collieries near 
Newcastle in England. They were rude affairs, however, the rails being made of 
timber, exactly straight and parallel; and bulky carts, with four rollers fitting the 
rails, were drawn thereon by horse power. At Whitehaven, in 1738, rails were made 
of iron, and in 1767 iron bars were introduced for an upper rail. About 1776 the 
rails were cast with a perpendicular ledge upon the outer side. Soon afterward the 
ledge was transferred to the inner side, and the roads became known as tram roads. 
The so-called “edge rails” were of even surface at the top, the projecting ledge 


*The author is under many obligations to the Presidents and principal officers of the various railroad and express 
companies, and particularly to those of the leading systems and organizations, for careful and pains-taking revision of 
the proofs of this article, thus rendering it authentic and reliable in its statistics and statements of fact. He is also 
indebted to “Poor’s Railroad Manual” for important statistics, and to “ Stimson’s Express History” for much interesting 
information with regard to the early history of the express business. 

[475 ] 



476 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


being transferred from the rail to the edge of the wheel, where it formed a flange. 
Following this came the thin edge rails, which spread in thickness at the top. The 
under edge was curved, thus giving the greatest depth midway between the eads or 
points of support of the rail. They were called “fish-bellied” rails. In 1808 
wrought-iron rails were substituted for cast iron, but flat bars only could be used. 
In 1820 machinery was introduced for rolling iron into suitable shape for rails. The 
substitution of wrought iron was very important, as straight cast-iron rails could only 
be made three or four feet in length, and the material was brittle and unsuitable for 
heavy loads and high rates of speed. 

The greatest desideratum, however, was the successful application of steam. In 
1787 and in 1794-5, Oliver Evans sent from Philadelphia to England drawings of 
steam carriages. In 1799 he constructed a steam carriage, which led to the first loco¬ 
motive engine. In 1802 Richard Trevithick patented, and in 1804 constructed, a high- 
pressure locomotive engine. If the cars were heavily loaded, however, the wheels 
would slip without moving, and this led to the attempt to prevent slipping by the 
application of cogs on the wheels and ricks on the rails. 

One night in autumn, 1812, William Hadley, “viewer” of the Wyman Colliery, 
near Newcastle-on-Tyne, went home in despondency, for feed was scarce and 
very high, and, in consequence, he feared that the carrying of coals in trucks over 
the long tramway would have to cease. If now, he thought, we only had an 
iron horse, which would not need to be fed, how quickly our troubles would dis¬ 
appear. The difficulty with all experimental locomotives thus far had been, that 
one set of wheels would have a tendency to surge or revolve on their axes without 
moving forward. Suddenly, it occurred to Hadley that all the wheels could be 
so connected as to overcome this tendency. This he succeeded in doing; his 
locomotive going to work in 1813, and continuing in steady service until 1862, 
when it was placed in honorable asylum. The locomotive was a rude affair, and 
was called “Puffing Billy” on account of the noise it made. George Stephenson’s 
father worked as engineer at Wyman’s for seven or eight years, and George was 
born there, June 9, 1781. Hadley died in 1842. 

In 1783, the construction of railways in France began; and on the 27th of 
August, 1825, there was opened, in England, the first railway for carrying passengers, 
twenty-three miles in length, the Stockton and Darlington. Up to that time, 
horse-power only was employed on railroads, although the previous year a locomotive 
had been introduced, traveling at the rate of six miles per hour. This gave reason 
to anticipate final success, and the Liverpool and Manchester Railroad Company, 
which also opened their road in 1825, offered a reward for an engine which would 

enable them to secure higher rate of speed. George Stephenson first came into 

notice as an engineer on the Stockton and Darlington railroad. 


i 




PRESIDENT OF THE NEW YORK CENTRAL AND HUDSON RIVER RAILROAD COMPANY. 












RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


477 


While the traveling public was in a condition of expectancy from this propo¬ 
sition, the Legislature of the State of New York granted the first charter for a 
passenger railroad given in the United States. A petition was presented to the 
Assembly, February 15, 1826, signed by Stephen Van Rensselaer and George W. 
Featherstonhaugh, praying for the incorporation of the Mohawk and Hudson Rail¬ 
road Company, and that it be granted the right to construct a railroad from Albany 
to Schenectady. At that time the transportation of property between these two 

cities was seldom effected in less than two days, and it sometimes required three 
days; but it was anticipated by the friends of the projected railroad, that by this 
means it could be accomplished in three hours. The petition of the old Patroon 
and his associate w r as referred to a committee, consisting of Theodore Sill of 
Oneida, William Seaman of Greene, and Robert Sanders of Schenectady. This 
committee reported February 28th. After referring to the canals and to the 

“successful application” of railroads in Great Britain, the committee said: 

“ As there is not a single instance of a railroad of any extent in this country, 
it remains an experiment yet to be tried; and it is under these circumstances that 
the petitioners are willing to make the first experiment of the kind, with their own 
private resources, provided they receive from the Legislature a grant adequate, in 
their estimation, to the risk they may run in the investment of so large a capital. 
The only objection that occurs to the committee, against the incorporation of the 
petitioners, is the possibility of its reducing the tolls on the Erie canal.” 

The committee proceeded to argue that there was no probability that this 
reduction of tolls on the canal would result from the construction of a railroad 
between Albany and Schenectady; but, nevertheless, the result has proved that 

the apprehension was not without reason. 

The bill authorizing the inauguration of this important “ experiment,” which 
was destined to revolutionize the methods of transportation, passed both houses 
of the Legislature, and was approved by Governor De Witt Clinton, April 17, 
1826. Van Rensselaer and Featherstonhaugh were the only persons named as 
Directors in the charter. During the year necessary surveys were made, and in 
order that the company might push their operations with vigor and success, an 
engineer was sent to Europe for the purpose of collecting all the requisite infor¬ 
mation on the subject; he returned in 1827, and made a favorable report. 

During this year, 1826, a French engineer introduced the locomotive on the 
French railways. The engineer, M. Seguin, also made some valuable improvements 
in the engine, which were speedily utilized. 

On the 7th of April, 1823, Maurice and William Wurts, proprietors of a coal 
mine near Carbondale, Pennsylvania, secured from the Legislature of the State of 
New York a charter under the name of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Com- 


478 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


pany, for the purpose of constructing a canal from Rondout, on the Hudson river, 
to Honesdale, Pennsylvania, and in 1825 the organization of the company was 
perfected, with Philip Hone as President. In March, 1827, the State of New York 
loaned its credit to the company for $500,000, and the same year the company 
sent Horatio Allen to England to buy locomotives for a railway it was constructing 
from Honesdale to the coal mines. This movement failed for the reason that the 
track was not constructed with sufficient solidity to permit the operation of the 
road by steam. 

The second passenger railroad charter granted in this country was given by the 
Legislature of Maryland, in 1827, to the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, for the pur¬ 
pose of reaching the coal fields of Pennsylvania. It was constructed with the view 
of operating it by horse power. The first railroad in active operation in this country, 
however, was a road built for the purpose of transporting granite from the quarries 
at Quincy, Massachusetts,* to tide-water at Naponset river, a distance of three miles, 
the immediate purpose being to secure granite for building the Bunker Hill Monu¬ 
ment. It was opened for business in April, 1827, and was operated by gravitation 
and horse power. It was not a passenger road. The second road constructed in 
this country was one built from the coal mines of Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, to 
the Lehigh river, a distance of nine miles. This was built on an inclined plane, the 
loaded cars gravitating down the plane and the empty ones being drawn up by 
mules. Neither of these enterprises, therefore, did more than introduce a system 
long in use in England. 

The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad Company, on the other hand, contemplated 
doing a general railroad business by the most improved methods then known, or 
which should be adopted. 

The Legislature of Massachusetts authorized the survey of a route for a rail¬ 
road from Boston to the Hudson river at a very early date, and before the con¬ 
struction of the Stephenson engine. The first act providing for such survey was 
passed in June, 1827. The following year an act was passed, providing a new 
commission for the same purpose, and this commission reported, in 1829, in favor 
of the construction of a road to Albany via Springfield. 

The Legislature of New York co-operated with the Legislature of Massachu¬ 
setts in the early movements to secure the construction of a railroad from Boston 
to the Hudson river. An act was passed, in 1828, “to facilitate the construction 
of a railroad from the city of Boston to the Hudson river,” which provided that 
the Governor should appoint three Commissioners to survey the route. Three 
routes were suggested, one terminating at Hudson, one at Greenbush opposite 


*The Quincy Granite Railway Company was incorporated March 4, 1826. 















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RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


479 


Albany, and the other at Troy. The Commissioners reported to the Legislature 
in 1829, as did the Massachusetts Commissioners the same year, in favor of the 
Albany route. Nothing, however, at this time came of these various propositions. 

The friends of the Hudson road displayed the greater energy. They secured 
a charter for the Hudson and Berkshire Railroad Company, April 22, 1828, with 
power to construct a railroad from Hudson to West Stockbridge, the capital of 

which was fixed at $300,000, with a limitation at $500,000. Nothing was done 

under this charter, however, until after its revival, in 1832 

These early projects, looking to the construction of a railroad from the sea¬ 
board, west, before the actual success of such railroads had been demonstrated, 
although not immediately carried into execution, are remarkable indications of the 
great enterprise of the American people. 

During the year 1828, the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company began the 
construction of the Gravity railroad from Honesdale to Carbondale; on the 4th of 
July the first stone was laid for the Baltimore and Ohio horse railroad,* and, 
the same year, there were built six miles of a road from Charleston to Hamburg, 
South Carolina. 

Two locomotives, sent from England by Horatio Allen, then a young civil 
engineer, were brought across the ocean in the ship George Canning , and were 
taken to Rondout, where they were placed in a shed, and finally sold for old 

iron. Some months later, in 1829, two more locomotives were brought over, in 

the ship Eliza Hicks , Mr. Allen coming with them. In July they were taken to 
' Rondout, on sloop Eliza , then sailed by Charles McEntee, and thence by two 
canal boats were transported to Honesdale. One of these locomotives, named the 
Lion, to which animal the boiler bore some resemblance, manufactured at Stour¬ 
bridge, England, was tested by Mr. Allen on the 8th of August, 1829, at Honesdale 
on the banks of the Lackawaxen. Mr. Allen guided the locomotive some two or 
three miles and returned, crossing the creek each way over a trestle-work about 
thirty feet high, on a curve of three hundred and fifty or four hundred feet radius. 
This bridge was about five hundred feet from the point of starting, and the fear 
was very general that the iron horse would leap the track on the curve and plunge 
into the creek; and therefore the young engineer made alone the first railroad 
trip on the continent. The Stourbridge Lion weighed seven tons. The hastily 

constructed track was built of hemlock timber with strap-iron rails. The timber 
shrank and warped, and the track became unserviceable, rendering it necessary to 


* The ceremony of breaking ground was performed by Charles Carroll, of Carrolton. He said: “I consider this 
among the most important acts of my life, second only to that of signing the Declaration of Independence, if even 
second to that.” There is still in existence, or was very recently, in one of the streets of Baltimore, the foundations 
of a portion of the original track of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, constructed of granite. 



480 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


resort to horse power and to abandon the use of the engine on the road, notwith¬ 
standing the satisfactory character of the trial trip. Near the place where this 
trial was made there now exist locomotive works — the Dickson Manufacturing 
Company—whence engines are sent to every quarter of the globe; and over twenty 
thousand locomotives are now in use in the United States. 

About the 1st of June, 1829, a railroad was opened in England, known as 
the Shutt End railway. It was three and one-eighth miles in length. A locomo¬ 
tive drew eight cars, containing three hundred and sixty passengers, from foot of 
first inclined plane to head of second, and return, three and three-quarter miles, 
in half an hour, or at the rate of seven and one-half miles per hour. Afterward, 
with only a tender and twenty passengers, it ran one mile, at the rate of eleven 
miles per hour. 

The reward offered by the Liverpool and Manchester railroad was awarded, 
in October, 1829, to Messrs. Robert Stephenson and Booth. They built an engine 
called the “ Racket,” in which they introduced some of M. Seguin’s improvements. 
The Racket, with seventeen tons, attained a speed of fourteen miles an hour; and, 
under favoring circumstances, could double this speed. In 1830, steam carriages 
were in regular use upon this road. 

In 1830, twenty-three miles of the road having been opened, horse power was 
employed on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. 

The construction of the Mohawk and Hudson road followed closely upon the 
successful introduction of the Stephenson engine. In 1830, John B. Jervis, an 
engineer who had acquired reputation in the service of the Delaware and Hudson 
Canal Company, was appointed Chief Engineer, and the road was built on the line 
he surveyed. All the surveys favored reaching the river at the extreme southern 
section of Albany. It was then deemed necessary to use inclined planes, even 
for moderate ascents. It was also considered important, if not essential, in order 
to avoid lateral pressure and oscillation, that the road-bed should be as nearly 
straight as possible. This idea long prevailed in England, the cars being held 
firmly together by screws, in order to furnish a steady and easy mode of travel. 

With two slight exceptions, the Mohawk and Hudson road was perfectly straight 
between the inclined planes. The ascent from the level of the Hudson river was 
one foot in eighteen, to a point one hundred and eighty-five feet above the river. 
There was a curve of four thousand feet radius at the eastern end, and one of 
twenty-three thousand feet at the west, with another of eleven hundred feet radius 
at the summit. This route rendered necessary heavy embankments and deep cuttings. 
The descent from the summit to Schenectady was three hundred and thirty-five 
feet. The inclined plane at Schenectady overcame a height of one hundred and 
fifteen feet. 




PRESIDENT OF THE WABASH, ST LOUIS AND PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY 


























RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


481 


Ground was broken for the road near Schenectady, on the 29th of July, 1830, 
by General Stephen Van Rensselaer, President of the company. The ceremony 
was performed with a “silver spade.” This, it will be borne in mind, was about 
nine months after the adoption of Stephenson’s engine by the Liverpool and Man¬ 
chester railroad, and was, therefore, substantially contemporaneous with the intro¬ 
duction of steam carriages for general transportation purposes. The Mohawk and 
Hudson railroad, however, was the first road constructed with the design of 
employing steam exclusively. A force of about two thousand persons was employed 
in construction, and it was claimed that the road was superior to any other in 
the world. The road was completed the last week in July, 1831, or one year 
from its commencement. 

After grading the road, square holes were dug, at the distance of three feet 
from center to center of each. These holes were capable of containing nine cubic 
feet of broken stone, and in clay they were connected by a nick. The stone 

used was principally graywacke. It was broken into pieces that would pass through 

a ring two inches in diameter, and pounded into the holes. A heavy stone block 
was imbedded in each pier. These stone piers constituted almost a continuous 
stone wall, and it was said that they cost as much per mile as the whole of the 
Baltimore and Ohio road. On the wooden rails, which were six inches square, were 
placed wrought-iron rails, manufactured at Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England. 
The road over the embankments, besides the usual rails and cross-sleepers, had a 
longitudinal sill under the sleepers. The Albany Argus of July 25, 1831, in announc¬ 
ing the completion of the road, stated: “ The company have decided on using steam 
power only, and there is probably no road in this country or in Europe more admir¬ 
ably calculated for locomotive engines.” 

The introduction of locomotive engines, however, was still surrounded with the 
most embarrassing difficulties. These do not now seem to have been great; but the 
obstacles in the way of success were, indeed, very serious. The first locomotive 

built in the United States was made by Peter Cooper, in 1830, at his iron-works, 

near Baltimore, for the Baltimore and Ohio road. It was a small affair, and was 
the first attempt to supersede horse power upon the road. It gave encouragement, 
but was not immediately successful. The first two practical locomotives built in this 
country were constructed at the West Point Foundry, in the city of New York, for 
the South Carolina road. The trial trip was made in November, 1830. The third 
successful locomotive built in this country was made at the same foundry, for the 
Mohawk and Hudson railroad. 

The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad Company, in pursuance of their plan to 
operate a steam railroad exclusively, ordered two locomotives, one from the West 
Point Foundry and one of Robert Stephenson, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The first 

61 


482 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


of these was appropriately named after the great leader of the progressive forces 
of the Commonwealth, De Witt Clinton, and the second after the great inventor, 
Robert Fulton, afterward changed to the John Bull. Its drawings were dated 
July 4, 1831. The De Witt Clinton arrived in Albany by tow-boat on the 25th 
of July, 1831, and on the 27th was placed upon the road. The length of the 
completed track was twelve and one-half miles. Stage coach bodies resting upon 
platform cars and placed upon trucks were in use for passenger cars. 

The trial trip of the De Witt Clinton was made on the 30th of July, 1831, 

just one year from the date of breaking ground for the road. The difficulties 
with the engine were, that the water surged in the boiler and that the draft was 
poor. When an artificial draft was created the heat was uneven. The English 
engine weighed twelve thousand seven hundred and forty-two pounds, three-fourths 
of which rested on two wheels, and its great weight rendered “ its usefulness some¬ 
what problematical upon a wooden rail.” The English engine was constructed for 
coke, and was only partially successful with anthracite. As the rate of speed of 
the De Witt Clinton in July did not exceed seven miles per hour, it was deter¬ 
mined to use coke with it, also. Another trial trip took place on the 3d of 
August, when the trip was made in one hour and forty-five minutes. The road 
was practically opened for business on the 10th of August, and travel and transpor¬ 
tation may be said to have commenced on that day. Two trains were run each 

way, and the rate of thirty miles an hour was attained part of the trip. Coke 

was used. 

After the opening of the road the stock of the company stood very high, not¬ 
withstanding the difficulties encountered, for they were not deemed insurmountable. 
There was considerable rivalry between the two engines, the one now being called 
Brother Jonathan and the other Johnnie Bull; and Brother Jonathan seemed to be 
getting the best of it, notwithstanding some difficulty was experienced with his feed 
pipe. 

The success of the “experiment” was now so well established that a grand 
excursion was decided upon, which took place Saturday, September 24, 1831. The 
party dined at Schenectady. Hon. C. C. Cambreleng, then a Representative in 
Congress from the city of New York, presided, assisted by Hon. James McKown, 
Recorder of Albany. Governor Throop proposed the following toast: 

The RIohawk and Hudson Railroad — Its successful execution has given us prac¬ 
tical evidence of the foresight of those who embarked in the enterprise. 

Chairman Cambreleng gave the following toast: 

The Buffalo Railroad —May we soon breakfast at Utica, dine at Rochester, 
and sup with our friends on Lake Erie. 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


483 


Seventy-two hours of continuous stage travel were then consumed in reaching 
Buffalo. 

After the banquet the De Witt Clinton, with a train of five cars, made the 

return trip in thirty-eight minutes, only fourteen minutes being employed the last six 
miles; the horse cars came through in sixty-eight minutes. The day after the 

excursion, the De Witt Clinton made the up-trip in thirty-eight minutes, and the 

down-trip in thirty-four. 

The State was electrified. Meetings were held in every section for the organi¬ 
zation of railroad companies; and the Governor, in his next annual message, 
questioned whether the canal would continue to be the favorite medium of trans¬ 
portation. 

The inclined plane at Schenectady was finished about the 1st of November, 

and the wharves on the river at the foot of Gansevoort street, near Island creek, 
were in progress of construction. During this year, four-wheeled trucks were 
first introduced for locomotives and long passenger cars. They were devised by 
Horatio Allen, and have been continued in use ever since. The first division of the 

Baltimore and Ohio railroad, from Baltimore to the Potomac, was opened during 

the year. The road could not then be constructed beyond Point of Rocks, owing 
to the opposition of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company. 

The original termini of the Mohawk and Hudson railroad were very incon¬ 

venient to the traveling public. The inclined planes were a source of great 
annoyance, and the connections with the general routes of travel were fruitful of 
trouble. Accordingly an act was passed in 1832, which authorized the Mohawk 
and Hudson Railroad Company to construct a branch railroad from the junction 
to Capitol square, and also from the square, or from any point between the junction 
and the square, to the Albany basin. 

Early in June, arrangements were perfected for carrying passengers by stage, 
from the corner of State and Market (Broadway) streets, Albany, to the depot, 
at the foot of South Pearl street. The road continued to be operated during 
the year, trains running from South Pearl street, Albany, to State street, Schenec¬ 
tady. In January, 1833, the branch road was completed, and cars were run by 
horse power, from 115 State street, near Eagle, to the junction. With the excep¬ 
tion of a single day, the road was successfully operated during the winter of 
1832-1833, notwithstanding the prevalence of heavy snow storms. The second 
track was also completed, and the spring business opened in earnest. 

The first car over the new road passed down the inclined plane at Albany, 
early on the morning of the 14th of May, and a salute was fired in honor of the 
event. A continuation of the road to State street, Schenectady, was completed 
on the 19th of May. It was announced that the locomotives were in fine order, 


484 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


and that trips were usually made in from thirty-five to forty-five minutes, including 
the ascent and descent of the planes. New square carriages, fifteen feet in 
length, with separate compartments, were built for the road, at Schenectady. 

A new Board of Directors was elected June nth, Erastus Corning being 
among the number. The improvement of the road continued, and the company 
was authorized, by successive acts of the Legislature, to borrow money, and to 
increase its capital stock. 


CHAPTER II. 

Albany: “The Net.”—A Center of Railroad Enterprise. — Saratoga and Schenec¬ 
tady Railroad. — Convention at Syracuse. — It Favors the Construction of a 
Passenger Railroad and the Payment by it of Canal Tolls.—Troy Builds a 
Northern Road. — Movements in Northern New York.—Albany and Troy unite 
in Building Roads to Rutland. —Construction of the Schenectady and Utica 
Railroad.— Massachusetts Seeks Communication with the Hudson River.— Enter¬ 
prise of the Village of Hudson.—Activity of Albany. — Its Advantages as a 
Railroad Center.—Success of the Troy and Ballston Road.—Albany Alarmed 
at the Success of Troy, and the Aggressiveness of Hudson and Catskill.— 
Union of Troy and Albany with regard to the Massachusetts Road. — Progress 
of the Central Line. — The Boston, Hudson and Catskill Route. — The Albany 
and West Stockbridge Road.—Opening of the Syracuse and Utica Railroad.— 
Completion of the Line from Albany to Boston. — Failure of the Catskill 
Project. — Completion of the Line from Boston to Buffalo. 

Albany, in its infancy, was termed “ the net,” because it caught all the travel 
and most of the business of the northern and western parts of the State. Having 
every natural advantage in its favor, it had, also, the enterprise necessary to the 
retention of the travel and trade which came to it, so far as they could be 
retained. Its public-spirited citizens intended that the Mohawk and Hudson rail¬ 
road should be the connecting link between two roads, one stretching toward the 
north, and the other reaching out after the western trade. The first of these 
roads was incorporated at the first session of the Legislature after the success of 
the “experiment” had been determined; the other was delayed by the conflicts 
of rivals. 

The railroad which was intended to be the avenue of communication from 
Albany northward, the Saratoga and Schenectady, was incorporated in 1831. Stock 






PRESIDENT OF THE NEW YORK, LAKE ERIE AND WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY 








RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


485 


was rapidly subscribed, and the enterprise was prosecuted with vigor. The ceremony 
of breaking ground was performed, August 21, 1831, by Churchill C. Cambreling, 
President of the Company, after an address by Esek Cowen. The road was open 
for passenger travel July 12, 1832, but trains did not run through to Saratoga until 
April following, when the embankment at Ballston Spa was completed. 

During the year 1831, the papers were filled with notices of applications to the 
Legislature, for railroad charters. In September, the Arg 7 is , which was State paper 
at the time, contained notices that application would be made to the Legislature for 
the incorporation of a company to construct a railroad from the city of Albany to 
the village of Buffalo, with branches to the villages of Syracuse, Auburn, Geneva, 
Canandaigua, Rochester, and Batavia. At the request of the village of Rochester, 
indorsed by the village of Buffalo, a railroad convention was held at the village of 
Syracuse October 12, 1831. The Albany delegates to this convention were appointed 
on the 10th, at a meeting which was presided over by Isaiah Townsend, Gideon 
Hawley acting as Secretary. At this meeting, the following delegates were 
appointed: Edward C. Delavan, William James, Erastus Corning, John L. Wendell, 
Volkert P. Douw, Israel Smith. 

The Syracuse convention was attended by eighty-four delegates, from various 
localities along the line of the projected road, between Albany and Buffalo. Nathan¬ 
iel Howell of Canandaigua was President, and William B. Rochester of Buffalo 
and Thomas H. Hubbard of Utica were Secretaries. Resolutions were adopted, on 
motion of James Stryker of Buffalo, urging the incorporation of the road. In contem¬ 
plation of opposition from the friends of the canals, the second resolution expressed 
the opinion that the railway should be principally used for the transportation of 
passengers; and that, when used for the transportation of merchandise, the same tolls 
should be paid into the public treasury as are derived from a similar source, by 
means of the canal. The resolutions were adopted almost unanimously, and the 
committee, in their notice of application to the Legislature for a charter, dated 
Syracuse, October 12, 1831, stated that they would apply for the incorporation of a 
company to construct a railroad from Utica to Buffalo, “for the transportation of 
persons and their baggage, and under such restrictions as that the same tolls shall 
be paid into the Canal Fund, for the carriage of all property other than baggage, 
as would be paid by the same property on the canal.” 

Troy, now almost united to Albany, was then practically quite a distance away. 
The building of the Saratoga and Schenectady road, it was clear, would divert trade 
from Troy to Albany, and therefore it was determined to build a road which 
should at least compete with Albany’s feeder to its trade. Accordingly, on the 
24th of November, 1831, a convention was held at Whitehall of delegates from 
the counties of Rensselaer, Washington, Essex, Clinton and St. Lawrence, to devise 


486 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


measures for the construction of a railroad between Troy and Whitehall. A railroad 
from Lake Champlain to the St. Lawrence was also projected. The act to incor¬ 
porate the Lake Champlain and Ogdensburg Railroad Company, passed April 20, 
1832, was the result of the latter movement. Nothing was done under it, however, 
for some years. 

The convention at Whitehall had the effect of securing the passage of an act 
for the construction of a railroad from Troy to Ballston, a distance of twenty-five 
miles, with a capital of $300,000; an act was also passed for the construction 
of a road from Saratoga to Fort Edward. These laws were passed in 1832. 
Little was done, however, and in 1834 the Saratoga and Washington Railroad Com¬ 
pany was incorporated, receiving the papers and effects of the Fort Edward company, 
on condition that it pay its expenses. The directors of the Saratoga and Wash¬ 
ington or Saratoga and Whitehall Railroad Company were named in the act, so as 
to equalize the interests of Troy and Albany. An act was passed April 26, 1833, 
providing for the construction of a railroad from Whitehall to Rutland, Vermont, 
and in July,- 1834, a meeting was held at Whitehall to promote its construction. 

The multiplication of railroad projects, and their presentation to the Legislature 
of 1832, proved a very serious source of embarrassment. A large number of acts 
of incorporation were passed, some of them of great magnitude, the aggregate 
capital of all the roads incorporated amounting to $24,775,000; but the most 
important of all the projects before the Legislature, those relating to the line 
between Schenectady and Syracuse, were postponed because of conflict of interests. 

The Directors of the Mohawk Turnpike Company applied for the privilege of 
constructing a railroad from Schenectady to Utica, on the north side of the Mohawk 
river. The application was referred to the Committee on Railroads, and the project 
was held in abeyance until the following year. In 1833 the Utica and Schenectady 
Railroad Company was incorporated with a capital of $2,000,000. The company 
was required to pay the Directors of the Mohawk Turnpike Company $22.50 on 
each share of stock, and the State reserved the right to purchase the road on 
reimbursing the company for its outlay, with ten per cent interest thereon. The 
subscription-books were opened in four different cities, and the total subscriptions 
at each place were as follows: New York, $5,286,000; Utica, $4,300,000; Albany, 
$3,257,100; Schenectady, $1,541,500 — the aggregate being $14,374,600. Stock was 
distributed pro rata among the subscribers. The Directors were chosen in August, 
and on the 19th of the month the Board elected Erastus Corning President. The 
contracts for the construction of the road were let in October, 1834; Commissioner 
of Construction, Gilbert M. Davison; Chief Engineer, William C. Young. The road 
was completed in 1836, at a cost within the original estimate, notwithstanding more 
than was anticipated had to be paid to the turnpike company and for real estate. 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


487 


The difficulties in the way of constructing a railroad from New York city to 
Albany led to extraordinary efforts in Massachusetts to build a road from Boston to 
Albany. In 1833, the Legislature of that State granted a charter to the Western 
Transportation Company, with power to build a railroad from Worcester via Spring- 
field to West Stockbridge, thus securing a railroad from Boston to the State line. 
Albanians were desirous of constructing a railroad from Greenbush to West Stock- 
bridge, but for three successive sessions, 1833, 1834, and 1835, the Legislature refused 
to pass acts of incorporation. In 1834, however, it granted the privilege of con¬ 
structing a turnpike or railroad, or both, from Troy to Bennington or Pownal, in 
Vermont. It also incorporated the Castleton and West Stockbridge Railroad Com¬ 
pany, with a capital of $300,000, and revived the charter of the Hudson and 
Berkshire Railroad Company, which had been renewed in 1832. The Hudson 
Company, having been the first organized, possessed themselves immediately of a 
narrow pass near Groat’s, in Chatham, sixteen miles from West Stockbridge, which 
was supposed to be the only route through which a road could be made, from the 
Hudson river to Massachusetts. Attempts were made to agree upon a joint use of 
this pass, by the friends of the Hudson, Castleton, and Albany projects, but they all 
failed. The Castleton route had been nearly abandoned, although enough stock had 
been taken to keep the charter alive, when propositions were made to the Commis¬ 
sioners to reopen their books, with the assurance that, if they would do so, parties 
in Albany would take the stock and build the road, as far as they could under 
the charter, and that a private association would construct the road the rest of 
the way to Albany; and contracts were entered into for the land from Greenbush 
to Schodack for that purpose. The books were accordingly opened, and ten gentle¬ 
men subscribed the remaining $300,000, taking $30,000 each, and paying in the first 
installment of ten per cent. These gentlemen were, Teunis Van Vechten, Erastus 
Corning, Lewis Benedict, Thomas W. Olcott, John and Isaiah Townsend, E. P. and 
J. Prentice, Marcus T. Reynolds, Ira Harris, and James Porter. 

The Boston and Worcester railroad, which was projected in 1830 and incor¬ 
porated in 1831, went into partial operation in the spring of 1834, and was the first 
passenger railroad actually doing business in Massachusetts. The passenger cars in 
use upon it were scarcely larger than the smallest omnibuses, and the conductor 
passed from one passenger to another by hanging on the outside. 

The Western railroad was incorporated in 1833. Subscription books to its stock 
were opened in Albany, August 6, 1835;* and a great meeting in behalf of the 
road was held in Faneuil Hall, on the 7th of October following, which was presided 


* There were then in operation two lines of stages between Boston and Albany. The journey between the two 
cities was made in between two and three days. 



4 88 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


over by Hon. Abbott Lawrence. The advantages of Albany, as a railroad center, 
were set forth in a memorial from citizens of Albany and in the resolutions adopted, 
and addresses were made by Amasa Walker, Edward Everett, William B. Calhoun, 
Henry Williams, Benjamin F. Hallett, and Harmanus Bleecker. 

It was announced, in December, that the capital stock of the Western railroad 

was all subscribed, and that there was a surplus in case of necessity; and a bill passed 

the Legislature of Massachusetts April 4, 1836, authorizing the Commonwealth to 
subscribe $1,000,000 to the stock. The Legislature of New York passed an act 
changing the name of the Castleton Company to the Albany and West Stockbridge 
Railroad Company, and an act incorporating the Troy and Stockbridge Railroad 
Company. An act was also passed, incorporating the Troy and Schenectady Rail¬ 
road Company. 

Albany had now become thoroughly alarmed. The road from Troy to Ballston 
had just been opened, and was seriously affecting the Schenectady and Saratoga 
road. A comparison of the passenger traffic from May 1 to August 14, 1835, 

with the corresponding period in 1836, furnishes some very instructive figures. 
The Schenectady road, the former year, during the period named, carried twelve 
thousand six hundred and fifty passengers, but during the corresponding period in 
1836 it only carried six thousand six hundred and sixteen, while the Troy road 
carried ten thousand seven hundred and eleven. A committee of the Common 
Council of the city of Albany, on the 12th of September, submitted a report, 
recommending that the city subscribe to the stock of the Albany and West Stock- 
bridge road; and the Legislature, at its next session, passed an act authorizing 

the city of Albany to subscribe to $250,000 of the stock of the company. The 
city accordingly subscribed to the stock of the road, and at a public meeting, held 
December 30, 1837, the action was approved. 

The alarm of the people of Albany had been greatly increased by the bold 
enterprise of the citizens of Hudson, and of the friends of the Canajoharie and 
Catskill Railroad Company. This company was originally chartered in 1830, with 
a capital of $600,000. The surveys were made; nine-tenths of the land needed 
for the road had been surrendered; contracts for construction were entered into 
May 21, 1836; several miles had been built; cars were running, and the road was 
to be finished the following year. Troy, also, had become alarmed, and had pro¬ 
posed to unite with Albany, and construct a road to West Stockbridge, by way 
of Lebanon Springs. The people of Hudson were enthusiastic over the rapid 
construction of both the Hudson and Catskill roads, and were representing to 
Boston that the route by way of Hudson, Catskill and Canajoharie was the most 
promising one to the West. 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


489 


The Albany memorialists of the meeting at Faneuil Hall in 1835 did not 
overstate the prospects of speedy railroad communication with the West. Roads 
were either in actual process of construction, or had been projected and were in such 
a stage of progress as to render their building at an early day entirely certain. 

The Utica and Schenectady railroad, which was the great connecting link 

between the network of western railroads and the East, was fast approaching 
completion. A trial trip was made over the road as far as St. Johnsville, July 

6, 1836, by a large party, and on the 26th of the same month an informal excur¬ 
sion to Utica took place. The running time going was three hours and twenty- 
eight minutes; returning, three hours and thirty-eight minutes. The formal opening 
took place on the 1st of August. There were present Vice-President Martin Van 
Buren, and State, judicial and city officers. Returning, the train left Utica at 
four o’clock in the afternoon, and reached Schenectady at fifty-four minutes past 

seven in the evening; thirty-three minutes were consumed in stoppages, leaving 
the running time at three hours and twenty-one minutes. Regular trips were 

commenced on the 2d of August. The road was substantial and perfect in its 

construction. It was seventy-seven miles in length, and cost $1,500,000, being 
about $20,000 per mile. The Mohawk and Hudson, sixteen miles in length, 
cost $1,100,000, over $68,000 per mile. 

The construction of the Tonawanda railroad, a charter for which was granted 
April 24, 1832, was rapidly pushed forward, and on the nth of May, 1837, it was 
completed to Batavia. In 1834, a charter was granted for the construction of a 
road from Lockport to Niagara Falls, and the same year the Buffalo and Black 
Rock Railroad Company was succeeded by the Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad 
Company. These roads were in full operation on the 26th of June, 1837; and 

were temporarily connected with the Tonawanda railroad by a line of stages between 
Lockport and Batavia, the railroad between these two villages, authorized in 1836, 
not having been built. It was proposed to continue the Tonawanda road from 
Batavia to Attica, and to construct a road, under a charter granted May 3, 1836, 
from Attica to Buffalo. These roads not being finished, the line of travel from 
Rochester to Buffalo was by way of Batavia and Lockport, thirty-nine miles apart, 
which was the only part of the route on which stage travel was necessary. On 
the 18th of April, 1837, a charter was granted for a road from Batavia to Buffalo, 
and on the 15th of May an act was passed providing for a road from Rochester 
to Lockport. 

As early as 1828, an act was passed for the construction of a road from 

Geneva to Canandaigua. On the 16th of November, 1835, a railroad convention 
was held at Geneva, to promote the construction of a road from Auburn to 

Rochester, and May 13, 1836, a charter for that purpose was granted. On the 

62 


490 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


ist of May, 1834, the Auburn and Syracuse Railroad Company was incorporated, 
and on the 1st of January, 1838, thirty-three miles of the road were in use, horse 
power, however, being employed. The same year the company was loaned $200,000 
by authority -of the Legislature. 

While these movements were in progress in the western part of the State, 
the strife continued between the friends of the Albany and of the Catskill routes 
from Boston to the West. In 1837, the company was authorized to increase its 
capital stock $400,000, and to borrow $400,000 in aid of the enterprise. In addi¬ 
tion, in response to an application made by the citizens of Catskill at a public 
meeting held March 27, 1837, the village was authorized to subscribe for two thou¬ 
sand shares of the stock. Monday, September 21, 1837, the work of laying rails 
upon the road was begun. The following year the State loaned $300,000 in aid of 
the project. In 1837, also, the village of Hudson was authorized to loan $50,000 
in aid of the Hudson and Berkshire Railroad Company, and its capital stock was 
increased to $450,000; Albany was also authorized to invest $250,000 in aid of the 
Albany and West Stockbridge railroad. 

In 1836 the State of Massachusetts subscribed $1,000,000 to the stock of the 
Western Transportation Company; in 1838 it loaned the company $2,100,000, and 
in 1839 it granted an additional loan of $1,200,000, to complete the road. Not¬ 
withstanding this, the Legislature of New York, while aiding other projects, refused 
to become security for the loan of the city of Albany to the Albany and West 

Stockbridge road. 

Meantime, the Hudson and Berkshire road was opened in September, 1838, 

and twenty miles of the Catskill road had been constructed, and yet the Albany 
subscription to the Albany and West Stockbridge road had not been paid. The 

citizens of Albany began again to move, and a meeting was held at the Capitol, 

Friday evening, December 21, 1838, at which resolutions were unanimously adopted, 
declaring that “individual enterprise having failed to accomplish this important work, 
a good regard to the prosperity of the city requires that it should be immediately 
undertaken by the Common Council, and prosecuted to a completion with all practi¬ 
cable vigilance and energy;” and the Common Council was requested to acquire the 
capital stock. On the 14th of January, 1839, the Common Council of the city of 
Albany agreed upon a bill, which was finally passed May 4, 1839. The act author¬ 
ized the city of Albany to borrow $400,000, in addition to the $250,000 already 
approved, and to invest it in the stock of the Albany and West Stockbridge Rail¬ 
road Company, provided the people should approve the same at a special election. 
This approval was given by a very large majority, and yet the Common Council, 
at a meeting held on the 1st of July, subscribed only $50,000, in addition to the 
$250,000 subscribed before, making in all, $300,000; it required, also, that the 






PRESIDENT OF THE DELAWARE AND HUDSON CANAL COMPANY. 





RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


49 1 


remainder of the stock, not to exceed $350,000, should be taken by individuals, 
and provided that the entire proceedings should be void, unless the depot was 

located within the bounds of the city. Notwithstanding the fact that this could 

not be done under the charter, citizens agreed to take the required amount of 
$350,000, although there were several irritating and impracticable conditions attached; 
but the movement failed, for the time being. 

An important link in the central chain of roads was now completed. The 

Syracuse and Utica Railroad Company was incorporated May 11, 1836; the con¬ 
tract for grading the main line of the road was let May 1, 1838, and in less 

than fourteen months an engine passed over the entire track. Fifteen miles of 
the structure were built upon piles, driven by steam power. Each pile had been 
thoroughly salted, and provision was made for re-salting. The capital stock of 
the company was $800,000, of which $700,000 was paid in and expended in 

construction. The road was completed and free cars run over it, on the 1st 

and 2d of July, 1839 i and on Wednesday, the 3d of July, the road was 

open for business. “ It is an important event in our village history,” said the 
Syracuse Standard , commenting upon the completion of the road, “ to be thus 

brought within ten hours of Albany.” It is much nearer than that now, thanks 
to improvements in railroad locomotion and management. The opening of the 
road was celebrated on the 10th of July. A special train left Albany, on which 
were the officials of the city, and the principal officers of the Mohawk and Hud¬ 
son Railroad Company. They were welcomed at Utica by John Wilkinson, Presi¬ 
dent of the Syracuse and Utica Railroad Company, who accompanied the guests 

to Syracuse, where they were entertained at the Syracuse House. Elias W. Leaven¬ 
worth presided, assisted by John Townsend, of Albany. 

The troubles in Albany relative to the West Stockbridge road now approached 
settlement. The time for the completion of the road was extended, on the 13th 
of April, 1840, and on the 18th a meeting was held at the Capitol, at which 
the Common Council was called upon to execute the law. A proposition was sub¬ 
mitted by a committee of the Western Transportation Company, that the city 
subscribe to $650,000 of the stock, bonds to be issued, and the road leased; and 
at the extinguishment of the debt the road was to belong to the Western Trans¬ 
portation Company. This proposition was accepted. The following year an act 
was passed authorizing the Albany and West Stockbridge Company to increase 
its capital stock $500,000, and another empowering the city of Albany to borrow 

$350,000 and invest it in the stock of the company. The construction of the 

road was now proceeded with, with such rapidity that on the 21st of December, 
1841, communication was opened between Greenbush and Boston, through the Berk¬ 
shire mountain pass, fourteen hundred feet above the sea; and on the 28th the 


49 2 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


Mayor and authorities of Boston were entertained at Stanwix Hall by the city of 
Albany. Teunis Van Vechten, Mayor of Albany, presided, and speeches were made 
by Mayor Chapman, of Boston ; Attorney-General Austin, of Massachusetts; Gov¬ 
ernor Seward, of New York; Colonel Webb, of New York; President Quincy; 
Lieutenant-Governor Bradish, John A. Dix, Colonel George Bliss, Superintendent 
of the road, and others. 

The success of this movement destroyed confidence in the Canajoharie and 
Catskill project, which was in operation to Cooksburg, a distance of twenty-six 
miles, and was completed two miles further; and it was sold for $11,600, by the 
Comptroller, at public auction, at the Capitol, May 20, 1842, to Amos Cornwall 
and associates. The Hudson and Berkshire line became a branch of the Boston 
and Albany railroad, being purchased, November 21, 1854, for $196,839. 

Meantime, railroad construction in Western New York was being rapidly 
advanced. The Auburn and Rochester road was open through to the latter place 
November 17, 1841; and, on Tuesday, the 17th of January, 1843, cars were for 
the first time run through over the Attica railroad, thus completing the last link in 
the chain of iron road from Boston to Buffalo. The cost of the line from Albany 
to Buffalo, including the Troy and Schenectady road, was reported at $7,500,000, 
or about the original cost of the canal. 

The city of Albany was agitated for years by various methods proposed for 
removing the serious inconveniences which existed with regard to the eastern 
terminus of the Mohawk and Hudson railroad. In 1834, first-class passenger cars 
were run from the State street depot, and second-class cars from the depot on the 
corner of Quay and Gansevoort streets. On the 15th of February, 1836, the Com¬ 
mon Council adopted a resolution, by a vote of eleven to nine, to unite with the 
Mohawk and Hudson Railroad Company, and extend road from foot of inclined 
plane north, to the Basin. The Legislature, in 1838, passed an act authorizing the 
Mohawk and Hudson Railroad Company to construct a new line at Schenectady, 
so as to avoid the necessity for an inclined plane, empowering it to arrange with 
the city of Albany for the extension of its main line north, and permitting it to 
construct a new branch road. In 1840, second-class cars were run from the freight- 
house, near the Erie canal, as well as from the freight-house in the south part of 
the city; but the first-class passenger cars continued to arrive at, and depart from, 
the State street depot. 

This was the situation when, during the second week in September, 1841, 
the Directors changed the main passenger depot from State street to Ferry street, 
in conformity with a resolution of the Common Council. On Monday evening, 
September 13, the Board of Trade resolved that the discontinuance of the northern 
termination of the road was “in disregard of the safety and convenience of the 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION, 


493 


traveling public, and in manifest hostility to the known wishes and paramount 
interests of a vast majority of the citizens of Albany.” On Thursday evening, 
the 16th, a large meeting of citizens was held at the Capitol. The removal of 
the depot was denounced as injurious alike to the city and the road, and a com¬ 
mittee was appointed to negotiate with the company for an abandonment of the 
inclined plane. An acrimonious controversy followed, between the Directors of the 
Mohawk and Hudson Railroad Company and the Albany members of the Board 
of Directors of the Utica and Schenectady Railroad Company. Finally, the Mohawk 
and Hudson Company submitted a proposition, through their agent, Samuel Stevens, 
and Messrs. Olcott, King and Delavan, to the Common Council of the city of 
Albany, which was accepted, November 16, 1841. The company, by this arrange¬ 
ment, agreed to give its bonds to the amount of $150,000, and its property in 
State street, to the city of Albany; and the city agreed, “in consideration thereof, 
to make the improvement at each end of the road, necessary to dispense with 
the inclined planes, or either of them.” 

Another year now passed, and then the Company presented a petition to the 
Common Council, asking permission to construct a branch in State street, with 

termination between Lark and Hawk streets, and the request was granted. On 

the 10th of July, 1843, it was announced that the new route of the Mohawk 
and Hudson at Schenectady had been completed; and it was proposed, in order 
to do away with the inclined plane at Albany, to build a new road along 
Patroon’s creek. The following day, at a special meeting of the Common Council, 
a report was submitted, recommending that the city loan the Mohawk and Hud¬ 
son Railroad Company $125,000, “for the purpose of making a new double-track 
road to some central point in the city, at or near the Hudson river, in such a 
manner as to dispense with the inclined plane.” Efforts were made to prohibit 
the road from connecting with the Albany and Boston road, but they failed, and 
the report was adopted, by a vote of fourteen to six. The change was com¬ 
pleted in 1846, and the total cost of construction of the road, according to a 

report submitted in January, 1847, was $1,461,152.91. The same year, the name 
of the company was changed to that of the Albany and Schenectady Railroad 
Company. 


494 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


CHAPTER III. 

New York City Seeks a Railroad Connection with the Boston and Buffalo Line.— 
Efforts to Build an Interior Road from New York to Albany. — The Long 
Island Railroad and the Sea-board Route. — Northern New York and the New 
England System.—The New York and Erie Railroad: Its Early Embarrassments, 
Construction to Goshen, and Successful Reorganization.—Aid to Crippled 
Roads. — Increase in the Assessed Valuation of the State.— Rapidity of Rail¬ 
road Growth in New York. — The Telegraph. — Railroad from New York to New 
Haven. — Construction of the Hudson River Railroad. — Progress of the Erie.— 
Opening of a New Line to Buffalo. — Completion of the Erie, Hudson River, 
and Harlem Railroads. — Business Area of the City of New York. — Completion 
of the Central Line of Road. — Business of the Roads of the State and United 
States in 1851. —Tolls on Freight; their Imposition and Release. — Special 
Charters and the General Regulation of Railroads. 

The city of New York early saw the danger to its commercial supremacy 
involved in the success of the railroads from Boston to Buffalo, and sought to 
avert it by constructing a road to connect with the great thoroughfare. Albany, 
also, was deeply interested in securing a better avenue of communication with the 
commercial metropolis of the State, for it suffered great inconvenience during 
the suspension of river navigation. In 1832, an act was passed providing for 
the construction of a railroad within the limits of the State, between the cities 
of New York and Albany. The project was regarded as feasible, and the State 
reserved the right to purchase the road, as was the custom with respect to the 
most promising projects. The capital was fixed at $3,000,000. Notwithstanding 
this favorable impression, when the books came to be opened, in October, for sub¬ 
scriptions to the stock, no adequate encouragement was given. The project in this 
form was temporarily abandoned, and the conclusion was reached that it would be 
necessary to go outside the limits of the State in order to find a feasible route. 
An act was accordingly passed, in 1836, for the purpose of removing the restric¬ 
tion, it being the purpose to pass up the valley of the Housatonic to West 
Stockbridge, and then over the Albany and West Stockbridge road to Albany. 
The company was authorized to proceed with the work of construction as soon 
as $1,000,000 had been subscribed to the capital stock. Nothing was done under 
this act, however, and the following year new Commissioners were appointed, and 
the amount necessary to the commencement of the work was reduced to $750,000. 
In May, 1836, Connecticut authorized the construction of a railroad from Bridge- 




PRESIDENT OF THE DELAWARE, LACKAWANNA AND WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY 










RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


495 


port through the Housatonic valley, and the plan of constructing a road within 
this State, between New York and Albany, was revived, but many experimental 
surveys were to be made before the true solution was reached. The road in the 
interior was not constructed by either of these companies, but by one older than 
either, the New York and Harlem Railroad Company, which was originally incor¬ 
porated, with a capital of $350,000, for the purpose of constructing and operating 
a horse railroad from Twenty-third street, New York city, to Harlem river. In 
September, 1836, the granite rocks at Observatory place were pierced, in the work 
of building; this road. 

In 1838 interest was renewed in the New York and Albany project, by the 
interior route. An act was passed, extending the time for the construction of 

the road, and the company was organized on the 2d of May. A meeting was 
held at White Plains, July 7, 1838, at which it was stated that the Highlands 
could be turned through the towns of Hillsdale, Claverack and Ghent, in the 
county of Columbia, at a grade of only thirty feet to the mile, and the announce¬ 
ment was received with great satisfaction. The first section of the road was under 
contract in December; and in January, 1839, a meeting was held at the Mer¬ 
chants’ Exchange, in the city of New York, at which Edwin F. Johnson, the 
Engineer, reported that the line was shorter than by the Hudson river, and that 
there was no elevation over thirty feet to the mile. Resolutions approving the 
project were adopted. An act was passed, in 1839, authorizing the company to 
locate its line on the most eligible route. In 1840, the New York and Harlem 
railroad was authorized to extend its lines to intersect the proposed route of 

the New York and Albany road, and was given the powers and subjected to the 
restrictions of the latter corporation; and on Monday, August 1, 1842, ground was 
broken at Pawlings, for the New York, Albany and Troy railroad. 

At this time, the only through route from New York to Boston, was by steamer 
to New London or Providence, and thence by rail to Boston. On the 18th of 
November, 1842, a train of passenger cars left Bridgeport for Albany, over the 
Housatonic road, and thereafter, until a better avenue was opened, this was, in 
the winter months, a favorite line of travel between New York and Albany. 

New York city not only sought to build avenues to the interior; it also 
desired to construct a sea-board line, which should bring South-eastern New England 
to its port. In 1834, the Long Island Railroad Company was incorporated, with 
a capital of $1,500,000, to construct a railroad from the village of Greenport to 
the village of Brooklyn, the State reserving the right to purchase; and, July 29, 

1844, the road was opened. At this time, the distinguishing features of the rail¬ 
road system of the country were : the line stretching west from Boston to Buffalo; 
and the sea-board line, extending from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Boston, 


49 6 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


and thence by way of Providence and Stonington, and the Long Island railroad 
to New York city. The Long Island Railroad Company owned three very fine 
steamers, used in crossing the Sound, and the route was very popular. Previous to 
the opening of the road, communication from Boston to New York city was had 
by way of Worcester, Norwich and the Sound, or by way of Stonington and the 
Sound. 

Railroad facilities in New England were still meagre. Rochester, in New York, 
was nearer Boston than was Greenfield, in Massachusetts, or Bellows Falls, in 
Vermont; and flour from Rochester and the products of Western New York were 
brought in ruinous competition in Boston with the products of New England. 
This gave greater impetus to railroad construction, the effect of which was felt in 
Northern New York, which was now becoming commercially a portion of New 
England, and which had been for a long time struggling to secure a railroad. 

In 1837, the Lake Champlain and Ogdensburg Railroad Company, which had 
been incorporated in 1832, with a capital of $3,000,000, was authorized by the 
Legislature of New York to proceed with the construction of its road as soon 
as the sum of $600,000 had been subscribed to the stock of the company, and 
in 1838 an act was passed, authorizing the Governor to appoint an engineer to 
survey the route for the proposed road, and Edwin F. Johnson was, accordingly, 
so appointed. This project, which had been seriously injured by the crisis of 1837, 
was now revived; in 1840, the Governor was authorized to appoint three Com¬ 
missioners to make a new survey, and May 14, 1845, a new charter was granted, 
under the name of the Northern Railroad Company, and railroads were projected 
in New England to connect therewith, thus bringing Northern New York into 
railroad relations with the New England system. On the 1st of October, 1850, 
the opening of the Northern road was announced. 

At an early day efforts were made by capitalists in the city of New York 
to secure the construction of a railroad from the west bank of the Hudson to 
Lake Erie, through the southern tier of counties. This section of the State, then 
remote from any great thoroughfare, had for years been endeavoring to secure 
the construction of a public highway. In 1825, Governor Clinton approved an 
act providing for a survey for such' proposed State road, and during the year 
such survey was made. The election in 1826 was very closely contested, and it 
was decided by the votes of the electors on the southern tier, Governor Clinton 
being re-elected, while his associate on the ticket was defeated because of his 
opposition to the State road. From 1826 to 1830, several conventions were held 
at various points along the line, first in behalf of a public highway, and then in 
favor of the construction of a railroad. In 1830, a pamphlet was issued by W. 
C. Redfield, based on surveys made by Edwin C. Johnson, setting forth the advan- 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


497 


tages of such a road. In brief, the plan was to build a railroad from New York 
city to the Mississippi, on a route which would connect all the artificial and natural 
water channels in the State with the great rivers and the canals of the West, it 
being held that for this purpose the highlands were best adapted, and that in 
this way the northern and southern sections of the Republic, and even the Rocky 
Mountains, could be connected with the city of New York. In this pamphlet, 
granite road-beds were commended as being the approved method of constructing 
railways. 

At this time, four great railroads were projected for connecting, the Atlantic 
sea-board with the West, known respectively as the Boston and Albany, the New 
\ ork and Erie, the Pennsylvania, and the Baltimore and Ohio. On the 24th of 

April, 1832, an act was passed incorporating the New York and Erie Railroad 
Company, with a capital of $10,000,000, and there was conferred upon it the 
“ power to construct a single, double or treble railroad from the city of New 
York to Lake Erie, through the southern tier of counties.” The same year, under 
authority of the Federal Government, and with the aid of residents of Rockland, 
Orange and Sullivan counties, Colonel De Witt Clinton, Jr., made a survey through 
these counties, and demonstrated the feasibility of constructing a railroad from 
the Hudson to the Delaware; but it was not until November, 1833, that the 
company obtained copies of the maps made by him from the Topographical Bureau 
at Washington. 

Books of subscription to the stock of the New York and Lake Erie Rail¬ 

road Company were opened on the 18th of October, 1832, ten days after the 
opening of the stock books of the Albany and New York Railroad Company, 

but capitalists gave little practical encouragement to the enterprise. By July, 1833, 
however, subscriptions to the amount of $1,000,000 had been received, and in 

August the company was organized, with Eleazer Lord as President. In 1834, 

the Legislature authorized a survey under authority of the State, and in May 
Governor Marcy appointed Judge Benjamin Wright as Engineer to conduct such 
survey. He completed his work during the year, submitting his report to the 
Legislature of 1835, which was so favorable that the company was reorganized, 

with James G. King as President. On the 29th of September, 1835, the Directors 
submitted their first annual report, in which they held it to be more important 
to the trade of New York to reach Pittsburgh by way of the Allegheny river 
than to reach Lake Erie itself. New subscriptions were secured during the year, 
until the total amount of stock subscribed was $2,362,100. On the 6th of Novem¬ 
ber, 1835, contracts for grading forty miles of the projected road, along the Delaware 
river, were let by an Executive Committee of the Board of Directors, consisting 

of J. G. King, P. G. Stuyvesant, Samuel B. Ruggles, and W. B. Lawrence; and at 

63 


49 8 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


sunrise on the morning of the 7th ground was broken at Deposit, under the 
auspices of this committee. 

The great fire in the city of New York, in December, 1835, rendered many 
of the subscribers to the stock unable to make further payments, the actual pay¬ 
ments falling below $400,000, and the company was compelled to suspend opera¬ 
tions. The Legislature of 1836 loaned the company the credit of the State for 
$3,000,000, but under certain restrictions which rendered it unavailable during the 
financial embarrassments of 1836 and 1837. In 1838 and 1839, with the aid of 
local subscriptions, work was prosecuted in Rockland and Orange counties. In 
1840, Mr. Lord was again elected President, and the Susquehanna and Western 
divisions were successively put under contract. In 1841 James Bowen was elected 
President; in 1842, William Maxwell; in 1843, Horatio Allen. During this time, 
by securing needed action at the hands of the Legislature, and by agreeing to 
expend the money raised in each locality in construction through that section, the 
road was built from Piermont to Goshen, a distance of forty-one miles, and in Sep¬ 
tember, 1841, it was opened for business. A route was now surveyed for a road 
from Goshen to Albany, a distance of ninety-four miles, and a charter was obtained 
for its construction ; and, two years later, the time was extended for its completion. 
Albany and New York, however, were now only fourteen hours apart, by the Housa- 
tonic road, and the public had become satisfied that they were to be brought still 
nearer together. In 1845, therefore, the Goshen and Albany Company were 
authorized to terminate their road in Rockland county, and the New York and 
Harlem Company, which had completed its road to White Plains, a distance of 
twenty-seven miles, was authorized to extend its tracks to Albany. 

In April, 1842, the New York and Erie Railroad Company felt compelled to 
place its affairs in the hands of assignees; and under their management, January 
3, 1843, the road was opened to Middletown. The assignment, however, was pro¬ 
nounced invalid by the Supreme Court, and the property was re-conveyed to the 
company. In October, 1844, Mr. Lord was again elected President, but he soon 
afterward resigned. In 1845 the Legislature passed an act releasing the State 
lien, provided the Company agreed to complete the road in six years, and the 
stockholders relinquished one-half of the stock. Books were opened in August, 
1845, and $3,000,000 were promptly subscribed to the stock. In November, 
the following Board of Directors were elected: Benjamin Loder, President; Thomas 
J. Townsend, Treasurer; Nathaniel Marsh, Secretary; Henry Sheldon, Daniel S. 
Miller, Henry Suydam, Jr., William E. Dodge, Shepherd Knapp, Samuel Marsh, 
Cornelius Smith, Homer Ramsdell, William B. Skidmore, Marshall O. Roberts, 
Thomas W. Gales, Charles M. Leupp, Theodore Dahon, John J. Phelps, Norman 
White. Under this direction, the road was carried forward to its completion. 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


499 


Several of the early railroad projects of the State which were seriously embar¬ 
rassed by the financial crisis of 1836-1837 were aided by the State. Allusion has 
been made to the loans, in 1838, of $300,000 to the Canajoharie and Catskill Rail¬ 
road Company, and of $200,000 to the Auburn and Syracuse Railroad Company. 
In addition, the sum of $287,700 was loaned to the Ithaca and Owego Railroad 
Company. This road, the charter for which was granted in 1828, and which 
was opened April 1, 1834, was originally designed to connect Cayuga lake with 
the Susquehanna river. It was sold by the Comptroller, in 1842, the same day 
the Canajoharie and Catskill road was sold, to Archibald McIntyre, of Albany, for 
$4,500, the claim of the State being at the time $315,700; and on the 13th of 
April, 1843, it was reorganized as the Cayuga and Susquehanna Railroad Company. 

A convention of delegates from the northern and eastern counties of the 
State was held at Saratoga Springs, August 1, 1839, in behalf of the Ogdensburg 
and Lake Champlain road, at which it was resolved to favor a plan for general 
State aid to railroads. While the Legislature of 1840 would not agree to this 
proposition, it loaned the credit of the State to the Long Island, Hudson and 
Berkshire, Auburn and Rochester, Schenectady and Troy, and Tonawanda roads. 
It was proposed that the State assume the construction of the Erie road, but by a 
vote of fourteen to twelve in the Senate, the act providing therefor was defeated. 

The assessed valuation of the State in 1837, prior to the granting of aid to 
railroads, was $627,554,784, and in 1857, twenty years later, it was $1,431,448,784, 
an increase of $803,894,000, most of which was added after the completion of the 
railroad system of the State. 

After the country recovered from the revulsion of 1837, railroad construction 
was carried forward with remarkable rapidity. In April, 1836, in the Senate of the 
United States, Mr. Grundy, from the Committee on Post-offices and Post Roads, 
reported a resolution, favoring the transportation of mails, etc., by railroad. In 
1838, the year of the first arrival in the port of New York of ocean steamers, 
there were three hundred and twenty-five miles of railroad in operation in the 
State; in 1840, there were four hundred and four miles; in 1842, when the first 
railroad survey of the east shore of the Hudson was made, there were five hun¬ 
dred and ninety miles; in 1844, seven hundred and twenty-two miles;* in 1846, 
eight hundred and seventy-three miles. Travel on the Utica and Schenectady rail¬ 
road quintupled in ten years. Indeed, traveling facilities had now become so great 
that a very epidemic of travel seemed to prevail. 

Over a million passengers now floated yearly on the waters of the Hudson 
river, and, it being the greatest thoroughfare in the United States, the deter- 

* The capital invested in railways in Great Britain in 1845 was $220,000,000; and in the railways completed and 
in operation, $375,000,000. 



500 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


mination to construct a railroad along its banks became irresistible. In 1842, 
the citizens of Poughkeepsie employed R. P. Morgan to survey for a route 
along the river, and he made a favorable report. In September, 1845, a conven¬ 
tion, held at Poughkeepsie, favored constructing a road on the line surveyed by 
Morgan, but employed John B. Jervis to make a new survey. At a meeting, held 
in the University of New York, January 23, 1846, over which Mayor Havemeyer 
presided, he submitted a report, demonstrating the feasibility of the project, and 

a charter from the Legislature was secured the same year. On the 23d of Feb¬ 

ruary, 1847, the Albany Evening Journal announced that it had been informed by 
Thomas W. Olcott, “who had taken a warm interest in the enterprise,” that the 
stock had all been subscribed. The subscriptions were taken in the various locali¬ 
ties, to the amounts named, as follows: New York city, $2,421,400; Westchester 
county, $126,100; Putnam county, $13,000; Dutchess county, $265,000; city of 
Hudson, $30,600; city of Albany, $72,000; the Commissioners, $71,900. Total, 
$3,000,000. Of this road, Zadock Pratt, of Prattsville, on the 15th of February, 
1847, wrote to a friend, “This road, with the river, will be the great highway 

of nations.” This prophecy is now history. 

Meantime, the invention of the telegraph had intensified the excitement of the 

period, increased its enterprise, and provided a powerful help in the management 

of railroads. The telegraph from Washington to Baltimore was in use in December, 

1844, and lines were being rapidly erected along the railroad routes in the State. 

The first dispatch, from New York to Albany, was received in the latter city, at 
ten o’clock, on the evening of September 9, 1846; but communication had been 
had previously with the West. In 1848, for the first time in a Presidential election, 
the newspapers of the day were enabled, within twenty-four hours after the closing 
of the polls, to announce the result; and, for the first time in the history of the 
State, the message of the Governor, the following January, was taken all the way 
from Albany to New York by rail. This was brought about by the completion 

of the New York and New Haven railway, which was opened December 29, 1848. 

New York and Albany were then only ten hours apart. Two days before, trains 

had run over the Erie route from Piermont to Binghamton. The Harlem rail- 

o 

road was now completed to Dover Plains; the Hudson River Railroad Company, 

Azariah C. Flagg, President, had contracted for the construction of its road to 
Poughkeepsie; and the Saratoga and Washington Railroad Company, Gilbert M. 
Davison, President, had contracted for the completion of its road to Whitehall. 
In 1849, the New York and Harlem railroad was under contract from Dover 
Plains to Chatham Four Corners ; the Hudson River railroad was being graded 
for a double track to Poughkeepsie, a double track having been laid to Yonkers; on 
Thursday, September 13, 1849, the first locomotive ran over the road to Peekskill, 




PRESIDENT OF THE LONG ISLAND RAILROAD COMPANY. 








RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


501 

a distance of forty-eight miles, or one-third the distance to Albany, and on the 

15th, the trial trip occurred. The road was opened for travel to Peekskill, Sep¬ 

tember 30, and to Poughkeepsie, December 31, 1849; an d from the nth of March, 
1850, during the season of river navigation, steamboats were run from Albany to 
Poughkeepsie in connection with the road. 

I he construction of the New York and Erie road was now being rapidly 
advanced. In June, 1849, the road was opened to Owego. In 1845, the Legis¬ 
lature passed an act authorizing the building of a branch to Newburgh, and, on 
the 7th of January, 1850, its opening was celebrated at that place. The Legislature, 
in 1845, also authorized the construction of a road from the village of Watkins, 

then called Jefferson, at the head of Seneca lake, to some point near Elmira, then 

called Fairport. The Chemung railroad, as it was called, was completed in Decem¬ 
ber, 1849, an d trains ran regularly on and after the nth of that month, the Erie 
having been completed to Elmira on the 10th of October preceding. The road 
connected by steamers with the Central at Geneva, thus opening a new and at that 
time a more direct route between New York and Buffalo, passengers leaving New 
York at five o’clock in the afternoon reaching Buffalo the next evening. Another 
connecting link between the Erie and Central was finished the same month, by the 
completion of the Cayuga and Susquehanna, and on the 18th of December a festival 
commemorating the construction of the road was held at Ithaca. 

The Erie railroad was completed to Corning on the 1st of January, 1850, to 

Hornellsville, September 3, 1850, and to Dunkirk, April 22, 1851; and on the 14th, 
15th, 16th and 17th of May, trains passed over the entire line from Piermont to 
Dunkirk, conveying some three hundred invited guests, including President Millard 
Fillmore and four members of his Cabinet. The cost of the road was $24,250,000; 
cost to the company, $20,500,000, the State having contributed, nominally, $3,000,000, 
and stockholders $750,000. June 15, 1851, it was opened to the public. Communi¬ 
cation was had with New York city by means of a ferry to Piermont.* 

The next to be completed of the three trunk lines being built from New 

York city was the Hudson River railroad. An experimental trip from Albany to 
Hudson took place, June 12, 1851, and on the 14th there was an excursion to 

Hudson for the benefit of the Hudson Orphan Asylum. On the 16th, the road 
was opened for business from Albany to Hudson; July 7, to Catskill; August 7, 
to Tivoli ; on the 29th of September, a gravel train passed over the entire road, 

and, on the 1st of October, passenger trains began running. The time between 

* Communication was also had by railroad between Suffern and Jersey City, as follows: from Jersey City to Pater¬ 
son, New Jersey, over the Paterson and Hudson railroad, chartered January 21, 1831, and opened in 1834; from Paterson 
to State line, over the Paterson and Ramapo railroad, chartered March 10, 1841, and completed in 1848, and from the 
State line to Suffern, over the Union railroad. These roads, after having been relaid with a broad guage, were leased 
in perpetuity by the Erie railroad, September 9, 1852. 





502 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


Albany and New York was now reduced to four hours. At East Albany, October 
8, 1851, the opening of the road was celebrated by a banquet, which was presided 
over by the Vice-President, Edward Jones. Governor Hunt, Ex-Governor Marcy, 
John C. Spencer, Erastus Corning, John V. L. Pruyn, General John E. Wool, 
James D. Wasson, Judge Buel, Robert H. Pruyn and others were present. President 
Boorman retired from office, and was succeeded by William C. Young, Superintend¬ 
ent. On the 10th of May, 1852, the New York and Harlem railroad was opened for 
business throughout its entire length. The Troy and Greenbush railroad, chartered 
in January, 1845, an d opened on the 13th of June following, was leased by the 
Hudson River railroad, June 1, 1851; and the Troy and Boston railroad, chartered 
November 22, 1849, was completed March 10, 1852, thus bringing Vermont into 

relations with the Hudson river system of railroads. 

The city of New York now had four lines of all-rail communication with the 
interior of the State and of New England: the New York and Erie, the Hudson 
River, the Harlem, and the New Haven, with its connections through the States 
of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and other New England States. A line 
drawn from Dunkirk through Buffalo and Montreal to Waterville, in Maine, now 
described the limits of the business parish of the city of New York. Within the 
easy distance of a single day’s journey, a traveler could now reach Waterville, four 
hundred and thirty miles distant, Montreal, four hundred miles, and Buffalo and 
Dunkirk, four hundred and seventy miles away; and thus New York became the 
business center of one hundred and twenty-four thousand four hundred and sixteen 
square miles, under the railroad system it had aided to construct. This was a great 
enlargement of its business area, for by the ordinary wagon, over average roads, 
a distance of thirty miles constituted an average day’s journey, and with the wagon 
as the only means of communication New York would have been the business 
center, measured by a single day, of an area of only two thousand seven hundred 
square miles. 

The Central line of roads now became in fact a part of the New York city 
system, instead of the Boston and Western system; and instead of disjointed and 
conflicting local enterprises, they were being brought into necessary and desirable 
union. In 1839 railroads were authorized to enter into contracts with each other. 
On the 31st of January, 1843, a convention was held at Albany, of representatives 
of the roads between that city and Buffalo, which fixed the time between those 
places at twenty-five hours, including stops, and adopted resolutions for the manage¬ 
ment of the roads. In 1846, the cars in use between Albany and Rochester were 

owned as common stock by the respective roads. In 1848, a law was passed, 
which, among other things, permitted the taking of private property for railroad pur¬ 
poses, in the event that “ the Legislature shall determine and decide by law that 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


503 


such proposed road will be of sufficient public utility to justify the taking of private 
property.” At the close of the year there were one thousand and nineteen miles of 
railroad in use in the State, and many organizations had been formed for the con¬ 
struction of other roads; among them, in response to a popular demand as 
expressed by a convention held at Lyons August 18, 1847, one for a Direct road 
from Rochester to Syracuse. The session of the Legislature of 1849 was largely 
devoted to these new projects, and several roads were declared to be of “ public 
utility.” In the Senate, April 10, 1849, however, by a vote of twelve to thirteen, 
a bill was defeated declaring the public utility of the direct road from Rochester 
to Syracuse. The following year, the “public utility” section was omitted from 
the new general railroad law; and an act was passed, providing for the union 
of the two companies between Rochester and Syracuse, and for the construction of 
the Direct road. The Auburn and Syracuse, and Auburn and Rochester roads 
were consolidated August 1, 1850; and the Syracuse and Rochester, direct, Railroad 
Company transferred its rights to the old organization, upon its entering into an 
agreement to proceed forthwith with the construction of the new road. The first 
election of Directors took place October 1, 1850; and, in 1853, the construction 
of the direct road was completed. The consolidation of the Tonawanda, and the 
Attica and Buffalo Companies, which had been referred to Erastus Corning and 
John Wilkinson for arbitration, took place on the 7th of December, 1850, under 
the name of the Buffalo and Rochester Railroad Company. In 1852 this company 
opened the direct road between Batavia and Buffalo, and sold the road between 
Attica and Buffalo to the Buffalo and New York City Railroad Company, this 
organization being subsequently succeeded by the Buffalo, New York and Erie 
Railroad Company, which, on the 1st of May, 1863, was leased to the New York 
and Erie Railroad Company. The Syracuse and Utica Direct, which was organized 
August 6, 1850, was completed and opened in 1853; ar *d the opening of these 

new roads secured a direct route from Albany to Buffalo, in place of the indirect 
local lines which before existed. There was also organized, in December, 1850, 
the Rochester, Lockport and Niagara Falls Railroad Company, which succeeded to 
the rights of the Lockport and Niagara Falls Company, and rebuilt the road, com¬ 
pleting it on the 28th of June, 1852; and articles of association were filed April 
29, 1852, for the Buffalo and Lockport Railroad Company, the road being opened 
in 1854. A connection was likewise desired between the old, or Auburn and 
Rochester, road and Niagara Falls, and on the 1st of March, 1851, there were 
filed articles of association of the Niagara Falls and Canandaigua Railroad Com¬ 
pany, the road being opened April 1, 1854; and September 1, 1858, it was leased 
to the New York Central Railroad Company for six per cent interest on $1,000,000 
capital stock. The Oswego and Syracuse railroad was opened May 14, 1848, and 


504 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


the Watertown and Rome railroad, the completion of which was celebrated September 
24, 1851, was opened in June, 1852; and thus Oswego and Watertown were success¬ 
ively brought into relation with the Central system of railroads. 

The total amount expended in the construction of railroads in this State to 
September 30, 1851, was $73,029,554.25 ; the aggregate length of the roads was one 
thousand seven hundred and sixteen and three-quarter miles, and there were three 
hundred and seventy-three and a half miles in process of construction. The business 
of the year was as follows: 



New York. 

United States. 

Miles of road in operation, - -- -- -- -- -- -- 

Earnings, passenger, - -- -- -- -- -- -- - 

Earnings, freight, - - - -. ----- 

Total, ---------------- 

1,705 

$4,800,431 

2,841,849 

8,876 

$19,274,254 

20,192,104 

$7,642,280 

$39,466,358 


The freight earnings of railroads in this State were relatively less than in 
other States, because of the restrictions relative thereto in the laws of the State, 
and because of the freight business transacted by the canals. 

In 1843, the Utica and Schenectady Railroad Company applied to the Legisla¬ 
ture for the privilege of carrying freight, which had been withheld from it, but the 
application was rejected. The following year, however, it was permitted to carry 
freight during the suspension of canal navigation, but wps required to pay into the 
State treasury an amount equal to the revenues which the State would have 
received if the freight had been transported on the canals. Returns were required 
to be made to the Commissioners of the Canal Fund. The Syracuse and Utica, 
the Auburn and Syracuse, the Auburn and Rochester, the Tonawanda, and the 
Attica and Buffalo Railroad Companies were also required to make like returns; 
but companies having the privilege of carrying local freight without payment of 
toll were permitted to retain it. At this time, passenger rates on the various 
roads in the State varied from four to eight cents per mile. In 1846, however, 
the freight carried by the Utica and Schenectady railroad was trifling in amount. 
In 1847, an act was passed which permitted that company and the Oswego and 
Syracuse Railroad Company to carry freight during any season of the year. In 
the general act, passed in 1848, it was provided that “tolls be paid, if the trans¬ 
portation of property.shall, in the opinion of the Legislature, divert business 

of transporting property from any of the canals belonging to the State; ” and so 
desirable was this deemed as a revenue measure, and so just to the people who 
were stockholders in the canals, that it was with great difficulty they could be 
brought to question its wisdom. 














RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


505 


The completion of the Erie road to Elmira reopened the question in a very 
practical manner. At that time, eighteen railroads did not pay tolls, while twelve 
were required to do so, these latter being the roads along the Central line, and the 
Chemung and Saratoga and Washington railroads. The result of the exemption 
of the Erie from the requirement to pay tolls was, that freight was shipped 
from as far east as Auburn and Oswego to Geneva, and thence to New York; and 
the shores of Seneca lake became an important distributing point for this business. 

The question which arose, therefore, related to the imposition of tolls upon the 

Erie; or, on the other hand, to the release of all roads from the obligation to 
pay tolls. 

Producers began to see that they had an interest in this question. Indeed, 
it was owing largely to the action of the State Agricultural Society that the Utica 
and Schenectady Railroad Company had been required to transport freight; for, 
before that time, producers in the interior were cut off from the markets at the 
sea-board. The passage of that act brought produce in large quantities from the 

west to Albany, where it either found a market or was sent forward to Boston 

or New York. The Erie now entered as a competitor, and could easily under¬ 
bid the Central roads, at least to the extent of the tolls. The Legislature of 

1850 sought to compromise the question, but failed; and the Legislature of 1851 
wisely settled it, by passing an act to abolish tolls on railroads, to take effect 

December 1, 1851. The following is the total amount of tolls upon freight paid 

into the treasury of the State by the various roads from November 29, 1844, to 
December 1, 1852*: 

Albany and Schenectady railroad, ------ 

Troy and Schenectady railroad, ------ 

Utica and Schenectady railroad, ------ 

Syracuse and Utica railroad, ------- 

Auburn and Syracuse railroad, ------- 

Auburn and Rochester railroad,. 

Rochester and Syracuse railroad, ------ 

Tonawanda railroad, -------- 

Attica and Buffalo railroad,. 

Buffalo and Rochester railroad, ------ 

Oswego and Syracuse railroad,. 

Chemung railroad,.- 

Saratoga and Washington railroad,. 


$181,898 

3 1 

74.954 

H 

83.431 

29 

58,224 

9 1 

10,246 

24 

37,157 

85 

23,677 

33 

7,580 

12 

93,959 

i 5 

63,882 

48 

9,843 

52 

5,730 

96 

11,096 

28 

$661,682 

58 


*This statement was prepared expressly for this article, at the request of the author, by Mr. George H. Birchall, 
Assistant Accountant in the office of the Auditor of the Canal Department, and is the first publication of the amount of 
tolls paid by the various railroads into the treasury of the State. 

64 






5°6 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


Under the system of special charters for each railroad, the privileges and obli¬ 
gations of railroads differed materially. The charter of the Buffalo and Attica 
Railroad Company, however, was generally taken as a model. In 1837, an act 
was passed subjecting moneyed or stock corporations to assessments for highway 
labor. By a resolution of the Assembly, passed February 3, 1843, railroads were 
required to report statistical information to the Secretary of State, who was requested 
to put such information in tabular form, and to print it, with the report of the 
roads, in one document, for the use of the Legislature. 

In 1847, the Legislature passed a series of enactments for the general regu¬ 
lation of railroads. By the provisions of one act they were required to grant 
equal facilities to connecting roads which may be competitors with each other; 
and, in case of complaints, the Governor was to refer them for consideration to 
three Commissioners, to be appointed by him. Another statute provided general 
regulations for the making of reports by the roads on the Central line. Provision 
was also made for acquiring title to lands, and for changing line of road; and 
the use of checks for baggage was made obligatory. Still another act was passed, 
relative to the acquisition of lands, and another act permitted companies to 
increase their capital stock, or borrow money for the purpose of laying a second 
track. The general statutes of 1848, which retained tolls on competing roads 
and contained the public utility provision, continued the right the State had reserved 
in most charters to purchase roads on payment of cost and ten per cent thereon, 
and directed that thereafter railroad companies report annually to the State Engineer 
and Surveyor. It contained, also, an individual liability section; but, by another 
act, it was provided that this should not apply to roads then existing. In 1850 
the State of New York led the way in the enactment of a general railroad law, 
from which the “public utility” section and the reserved right to purchase were 
omitted, and by which the right of eminent domain was conferred on all railroad 
corporations. In 1850, also, the first act was passed, defining and regulating the 
duties of the State Engineer and Surveyor. That year, one thousand four hundred 
and ten miles of railroad had been opened in the State. Under the Laws of 
1850 and 1851, as subsequently modified by amendments not materially affecting 
the system, the railroads of this State have been since governed. 







PRESIDENT OF THE BOSTON AND ALBANY RAILROAD COMPANY 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


50/ 


CHAPTER IV. 

Improvements in Railroad Construction. — Stone Road-beds Abandoned. — The Longi¬ 
tudinal Sill and Flat Rail Prove a Failure. — Adoption of the Existing Form 
of Road-beds.— Perfection of the Frame and Running-gear of Engines. — Improve¬ 
ments in Cars and Car-wheels.—Engineering Achievements on the Hudson River 
and Erie Railroads. — Construction of the Hudson and Delaware Canal. — The 
Telegraph and the Railroad.—Origin and Growth of the Express Business.— 
The American Express Company, the United States Express Company, the Adams 
Express Company, and the National Express Company. — The Merchants’ Dispatch 
and Fast Freight Lines. 

During the construction of the great through-lines in New York, important 
improvements occurred in the method of building railroads. In the beginning, 
European engineers were of opinion that the road-bed must be rigid and unyield¬ 
ing ; and therefore they built McAdamized beds, reaching below the frost, upon 
which reposed granite sills and cross-ties, rejecting wood, and using only iron and 
stone. At first, the American engineers acted upon this principle. In the case 
of the Mohawk and Hudson road, trenches were filled with broken stone, and 
upon these trenches were placed stone blocks, which supported longitudinal timbers, 
made of southern pine, to which was attached a flat bar, or plate rail. This 
structure was very firm, and admitted of easy traction, or adjustment of machinery 
to track; but under a high rate of speed it operated severely upon rail and 
rolling-stock, and its abandonment was necessary to more rapid transit. 

The problem before American engineers was, to so unite solidity with elas¬ 
ticity as to secure the highest rate of speed, with the least possible wear upon 
rail and rolling-stock; the more elasticity the less wear, but the greater tractile 
force necessary to haul a train, while the more solid the track, the less tractile 
force necessary, but the greater the wear upon rail and rolling-stock. Road-beds 
of gravel and sand were, therefore, substituted for stone; but in some instances 
there were used, for a time, continuous stone sills. These, however, were soon 
abandoned, and there was substituted the longitudinal sill of wood, as employed 
on the Mohawk and Hudson, upon which was placed a thin bar, or strip, or 4 rail 
of iron; the wood being designed to support the weight of the trains, and the 
iron being used simply to prevent the abrasion of the wood. The timber stringer, 
with its flat bar of iron, was used on the Saratoga and Schenectady railroad, and 
was very economical, the wear upon the iron being very slight, owing to the 


5°8 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


elasticity of the timber, and the light machinery necessarily used. It, however, 
permitted neither a high rate of speed, nor any considerable amount of traffic. 
Gradually, therefore, bqrs of greater thickness were introduced, and there was 
designed the H rail, in nearly its present form. These rails at first weighed 
fifty pounds to the lineal yard, but were subsequently increased to sixty, seventy^ 
and seventy-five pounds per yard; and, in some instances, even to ninety-five 
pounds. It was next found that cross-ties gave a steady bearing upon the road¬ 
bed, and hence wooden sleepers were employed. They were at first used in con¬ 
nection with the longitudinal sills, but soon these were abandoned, gravel ballasting 
being found sufficient, and the rails were laid directly upon the sleepers. In 1845, 
the first T rail laid on a railroad in the United States was laid on the Erie 
road, and, in 1846, the first manufactured in this country was made for the Erie. 
In 1846, the Syracuse and Utica Railroad Company decided to abandon its flat 

bar rail, and made arrangements to substitute a rail weighing sixty-one pounds to 

% 

the lineal yard, which experience had demonstrated to be a very serviceable weight; 
and in 1847 the Legislature passed an act requiring all roads to take up the 

flat bar rail, and to substitute therefor a rail weighing fifty-six pounds to the lineal 
yard; but it was not until 1850 that the flat bar rail and longitudinal sill were 
entirely removed from the Utica and Schenectady railroad. 

The next improvement, in order of time and importance, related to the frame 
and running-gear of the engines. The English engine first used on the Mohawk 

and Hudson railroad weighed seven tons; it was placed on a frame twelve feet 
long, moved by four wheels, all drivers, the axles of which were four and one- 
half feet apart, the frame projecting each way nearly four feet beyond the bearing 
on the axles. A vertical inequality in the surface of the rails produced a vertical 
motion at the ends of the frame, about double the inequality, and this action 
of the frame proved injurious alike to the machinery and the track. To under¬ 
take to remedy this difficulty by placing the axles further apart, would have been 
to increase the labor and danger incurred in passing curves. The engineer, Mr. 
John B. Jervis, thereupon devised a plan, which was completely successful, and 
which was adopted on all American railways. He provided a guiding truck, or 
four-wheeled car, supporting the forward end of the frame on two wheels; an 

engine was built by the West Point Foundry Association, and in the summer of 
1832 it was placed on the track of the Mohawk and Hudson road. The Brother 
Jonathan, as the engine was called, fully established the value of the truck prin¬ 
ciple, and the English engine was placed upon similar running-gear. When Mr. 
Jervis became the Constructing Engineer of the Saratoga and Schenectady railroad, 
he further perfected the six-wheeled engine. The two wheels on the forward frame, 
being the leaders and geared short, went around a curve with as much ease as 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


509 


a common wagon, and brought around the working-wheels, with the large frame 
on which the whole machinery of the engine rested, with all practicable ease. 
The engine was built by George Stephenson & Company, of Newcastle, England, 

the boiler being provided with tubular flues, according to the plan of the most 

improved locomotives then made at that establishment. In 1843, recent improve¬ 
ments in smoke-pipes of engines were noted in a report to the Legislature. 

The first English engines were adapted to the burning of coke as fuel; and 
the builders of earlier American engines sought to adapt them to the use of coal. 
Subsequently wood was burned. About 1862 the growing scarcity of wood and its 
consequent rise in price led to the general employment of coal-burning locomotives; 
the New York Central Railroad Company, however, purchasing large tracts of 

woodland in the vicinity of Williamstown, Oswego county. When the Liverpool and 
Manchester Railway first commenced working, seven barrels of coke were burned to 
carry one ton one mile. In i860, on the London and South-west railway, the same 
power was generated with two tons of coal. 

The truck principle was adapted to a single pair of driving-wheels. The 

standard American locomotive now has four driving and four truck-wheels. A 
second class of engines, called “ moguls,” used especially as freight engines, is 
provided with six driving-wheels, with a two-wheeled truck forward, called a pony 
truck. A third locomotive is called the consolidation truck, and is provided with 
eight driving-wheels and a pony truck. The weight of locomotives has been suc¬ 
cessively increased to ten, sixteen, twenty, and twenty-six tons, and there has been 
introduced, on some freighting roads, engines of forty tons weight, including tenders. 

The first cars on American railways were coach bodies, of the ordinary form, 
placed on four-wheeled frames; afterward, the bodies were enlarged, and the form 
changed; and, finally, about 1838, the truck principle was applied, the bodies, 
adapted to hold sixty passengers, were attached loosely to two separate trucks, so 
as to permit them to adapt themselves separately to the curves and inequalities 
of the track. The car-wheels in use up to 1840 were the ordinary spoke-wheel, 
with open-banded hubs. Several patents for solid cast-iron wheels were taken out. 
On the 15th of May, 1847, a patent was issued to Anson Atwood, and on the 

2 2d another was granted to Asa Whitney. The latter was at once adopted by 

the Hudson River railroad; but the former, as improved by Washburn, went into 
general use. In 1845 elliptical springs were introduced in cars manufactured by 
Eaton, Gilbert & Company, of Troy. 

The construction of the Hudson River railroad from New York to Pough¬ 
keepsie, which was under the engineering supervision of Mr. John B. Jervis, was 
very difficult. Forty-four miles of the road were exposed to the river, and thirty- 

seven miles of protection wall had to be laid, and several thousand feet of docking 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


5io 

built. Six drawbridges were made, one of which has since been closed, and there 
were one thousand three hundred feet of pile-bridging, with about one mile of piled 
road through a swamp near Peekskill, and a solid causeway, one mile in length, 
across Croton bay. There were three hundred and fifty thousand cubic yards of 
excavation, and many deep rock cuts, including an immense cut, seventy feet in 
depth, through Teller’s Point. There were three thousand three hundred and sev¬ 
enty-six feet of tunneling, twenty-four feet wide by eighteen feet high, including the 
brick arch of six hundred feet, under Sing Sing prison yard. Of these tunnels, 
the New Hamburg tunnel was eight hundred feet long, Breakneck hill five hundred 
feet, and the tunnel at Anthony’s Nose three hundred and fifty feet; the two 
latter being through hard Highland granite. 

To build a road over the mountains and across the rivers between Piermont 
and Dunkirk, so as to permit the rapid movement of railway trains, was a work 
well calculated to test to the fullest extent the capacity of American engineers. 
The Delaware river was first crossed by a bridge eight hundred feet in length, 

reposing upon spans of one hundred feet, with a grade forty feet above the 

river. After crossing the Delaware, the road was laid on a shelf, one hundred 
feet above the river, having on one side a deep cut through the rocks, and 

on the other a precipice. Three miles of the road, at this point, cost $300,000. 

The Lackawaxen river was next crossed, over a bridge four hundred and fifty 

feet in length; the Delaware was re-crossed, over a bridge five hundred and eighty 
feet long, and a third bridge across the Delaware was constructed at Deposit. In 
passing west, over the highlands between the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers, 
the upward grade, for seven and a half miles, was fifty-seven feet, and the down¬ 
ward grade, for eight miles, sixty feet per mile. At the gulf summit, the 

construction of one mile cost $200,000. Cascade bridge was built over a chasm 

one hundred and eighty feet in depth, with one span two hundred and seventy- 

five feet in length. Within a short distance of this place, the road was carried 
over a creek and ravine, on a massive stone structure, called the Starucca viaduct, 
at an elevation of one hundred feet, requiring eighteen stone piers and arches, 

and twenty-two thousand cubic yards of masonry; cost, $320,000. After crossing 
the Susquehanna, on a bridge eight hundred feet in length, the road, for three 
hundred miles, was built on a level or slightly ascending grade, of not exceeding 
five feet per mile. Major Thompson S. Brown and Horatio Allen were the Chief 
Engineers, and Silas Seymour, L. J. Stoncliff, and M’Cree Swift the Division 

Engineers employed upon the work, during the construction of the road. 

The present relation of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company to the 
railroad system of the State renders necessary an allusion here to its canal. This 

canal extends from Honesdale in Pennsylvania to the Hudson river at Rondout, 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


5i i 

ninety-four miles from the city of New York and fifty-two from Albany, twenty-five 
miles of the canal being in Pennsylvania and eighty-three miles in the State of 
New York. Ground was broken for its construction July 13, 1826, and in October, 
1828, it was completed and opened for business. The Gravity railroad, completed 
in 1829, crosses Moosic mountain and connects Honesdale with Carbondale and 
Olyphant. The road consists of a loaded track, twenty-six and thirty-one one- 
hundredths miles in length, from Olyphant to Honesdale, for the transportation of 
coal from the mines to canal and railroad; and of a light track, twenty-nine and 
ninety-two one-hundredths miles in length, for the return of empty cars from 

Honesdale to Olyphant. The road is operated by stationary engines and the 
force of gravity. The entire cost of the original construction of canal and rail¬ 
road was $2,305,599.50. In 1827 the State loaned its credit to the company, to 
the amount of $500,000, and again, in 1829, for $300,000; the loans being repaid 
in 1850. The canal was originally .constructed for boats having a carrying capacity 
of thirty tons. In 1843 the railroad tracks were doubled and the canal was enlarged 
to a carrying capacity of forty tons; in 1846 it was further enlarged to a capacity 
of fifty tons; in 1848 to a capacity of one hundred tons, and in 1853 to a capacity 

of one hundred and forty tons, the locks being one hundred feet in length between 

gates and fifteen feet in width, and the actual average of the loads carried by 

the boats being about one hundred and thirty tons. The capacity of the canal is 
adequate to the transportation, annually, of about two million gross tons of coal. 
Up to August, 1851, the sum of $3,871,620 was expended by the company, in this 
State. Four novel and interesting wire suspension aqueducts have been constructed 
over the Rondout, Neversink, Lackawaxen and Delaware rivers. The trunks are of 
timber and plank, and are suspended to two wire cables, resting on heavy cast-iron 
saddles, placed on top of small stone towers, composed of three blocks of white 

quartz pudding stone. On each side of the trunk is a tow-path. The cables are 
made in one length, and are connected at their ends with anchor chains, made of 

solid wrought iron. The lower end of each chain is secured to a heavy cast-iron 

anchor-plate, six feet square, which supports the foundation of a large bed of 
masonry, the weight of which resists the strain of chain and cable. The cable, 
covered with varnish and paint, is closely encased by a tight wire wrapping. 

The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, besides its real estate in various 

localities in this State, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, owns over twenty- 
five thousand acres of coal lands in Pennsylvania, and operates two hundred 
miles of underground railway at its various mines, with sixteen and three-quarters 
miles of connecting tracks, making altogether two hundred and sixteen miles of 
mining track. From 1830 to 1871, when the company began the operation of its 
system of roads in this State, which will be described hereafter, it received $8,604,824 


512 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


in tolls on its canal and railroad. From the origin of the company to 1877, when 
its affairs were closely examined by a committee of stockholders, consisting of 
John V. L. Pruyn, Adolphus Hamilton, Henry H. Farnham, H. M. Olmstead, E. 
B. Grant and S. P. Nash, it had shipped to various markets over thirty-seven 
millions of tons of coal, and divided among its stockholders more than $39,000,000. 

On the 9th of September, 1846, at ten o’clock in the evening, telegraph com¬ 
munication was first established between Albany and New York. On the 1st of 
April, 1851, the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company 
was organized for the purpose of building a line from Buffalo to St. Louis; this 
company became, by successive steps, the Western Union Telegraph Company, 
which was organized April 4, 1856, with its head-quarters in the city of New York, 
its present offices being in the grand building on Broadway known as the Western 
Union building. In 1852, the telegraph was first used by the Erie in connection 
with railroad operations, and now it is indispensable to the rapid and regular 
movement of trains. The construction of telegraph lines all over the world proceeded 
with great rapidity, not only annihilating distance and enabling one man to direct 
the movements of railroad trains over thousands of miles of road, but concen¬ 
trating in a single street in the city of New York the pow r er to direct the 
business of the entire continent and in a single hour to control a day’s commerce 
all over the world. An overland telegraph was opened to San Francisco October 
22, 1861, simultaneously with the great increase in the forwarding business of the 
continent, and the following message was sent: “ The Pacific to the Atlantic 

sends greeting; and may both oceans be dry before a foot of all the land that 
lies between them shall belong to any other than our united country.” 

In 1858, the Atlantic telegraph was laid, the first message being sent on the 
5th of August, by its most prominent promoter, Cyrus W. Field, and on the 

26th dispatches were exchanged between Queen Victoria and President Buchanan. 
The cable soon ceased to work, however, but the enterprise was renewed after 
the close of the Civil War. In 1866, an improved cable was laid, and on the 
27th of July, permanent communication was established between Europe and America. 
The capital stock of the International Ocean Telegraph Company is $3,000,000, 
of which the Western Union Telegraph Company owns $1,517,000 and the com¬ 
pany itself owns $194,600. The Western Union Telegraph Company is also a 
large owner of stock in the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company, which company 
has large and valuable assets in other telegraph and telephone companies. 

Sixteen years ago, after the consolidation of a number of small companies 

with the Western Union Telegraph Company, the capital stock of the company 

was fixed at $41,000,000, and it had thirty-seven thousand miles of pole line and 
seventy-five thousand miles of wire; the capital being at about the rate of $550 




0 


PRESIDENT OF THE BROOKLYN, BATH AND CONEY ISLAND RAILROAD COMPANY. 


















































































RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


50 


per mile of wire. On the 1st of September, 1882, the company had one hundred 
and thirty-one thousand and thirty-two miles of line and three hundred and seventy- 
four thousand two hundred and ninety-four miles of wire, and its capital stock 
had been increased through various acquisitions, but mainly that of the Atlantic 
and Pacific Telegraph Company in 1881, to $80,000,000, being at a rate of less 
than $200 per mile. The stock, therefore, has been about doubled, the plant 
increased in extent five-fold, and there have been acquired large blocks of real 
estate and over $8,000,000 in value of convertible assets, which with valuable 
patents and franchises constitute the property of the company. In five years, the 
number of messages sent over the wires of the company has increased from twenty- 
one million one hundred and fifty-eight thousand nine hundred and forty-eight to 
thirty-nine millions, and the number of offices from seven thousand five hundred 
to twelve thousand and forty-one. Salaries are paid by the company at only two 
thousand five hundred and seventy-eight of these offices, and at nine hundred and 
sixty offices it pays only a portion of the operating expenses, leaving over nine 
thousand offices which are maintained and operated by railway companies, in con¬ 
sideration of services rendered to them by the Western Union Telegraph Company. 
These lines are literally patrolled by the railroad companies, and breaks are often 
promptly repaired by their employees; and when repairs are not done by them, 
they give free transportation to the employees of the Western Union and to the 
material furnished by the company. 

Stage lines traversed every important highway before railroads were built. The 
drivers of these stages were trusted agents for the payment and collection of notes 
and bills, and the transaction of all kinds of business; and they, likewise, conveyed 
packages of money and other valuable articles. The conductors of railroad cars natu¬ 
rally succeeded to this messenger work. William F. Harnden, who was the first 
conductor on the Boston and Worcester railroad, and, afterward, a ticket agent in 
Boston, finding his slender frame yielding to the influences of close confinement, 
organized a package express, early in 1839, between Boston and New York. He had 
accommodation for a desk in O. Hearn’s stationery store, which was kept in the 
basement, at the corner of Wall and Nassau streets; and this was the first Express 
office in New York city. He remained for but a few months, however, and in the 
fall of 1839 hired an office at No. 2 Wall street, where the National Bank of the 
Republic now stands. Harnden founded several express lines in this country, and 
his companies became very popular at the South, as well as East. Harnden & 
Company then established express lines to Europe, his partner, Dexter Brigham, 
Jr., assisted by Luke Damon, pioneering the package express. The exchange 
and passenger business, known as Hamden’s, was controlled by a copartnership of 

Boston capitalists, with him at its head. Harnden contributed largely to the 

65 


5^4 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


increase of the tide of immigration by advertising the advantages of the country 
abroad; and he established bills of exchange, which were purchased by immigrants 
and sent to their friends at home, to enable them to come to the United States. 
He died January 14, 1845, aged thirty-three years, and was buried at Mount 

Auburn, near Boston. 

In May, 1840, Alvin Adams engaged with P. B. Burke in the express business 
between Boston and New York, over the line of the Boston and Worcester Railroad 
Company and the steamboats running between Norwich and New York; he associ¬ 
ated with himself various partners, under the name of Adams & Company, who 
thereafter extended the business to Philadelphia, over the line of the Camden and 
Amboy railroad. The business did not prosper much until 1843, wh en it began to 
increase, owing to the fact that Harnden & Company were devoting most of their 
attention to foreign business. Adams & Company also absorbed various firms in 
the South, purchased the home business of Harnden & Company, and pushed their 
lines rapidly over the new railroads which were being constructed. In 1850, upon 
the completion of the New York and New Haven railroad, Daniel Phillips and 
Clapp Spooner arranged to send money and small packages over it, paying $1,000 
per month for the space occupied by them in a car on the express train. 

Thompson & Company’s Western Express was organized in August, 1841, in 
Boston, by William F. Harnden. They were employed by Adams & Company. 
Its route was from Boston to Albany, via Springfield. Henry Wells was its 
original agent in Albany. James M. Thompson, who was a clerk in the Boston 

office, became the agent at Springfield in 1842, and in 1844 he purchased the 

business of Harnden. E. Lamb Stone was Thompson’s first agent in Albany. 
He was succeeded, in the fall of 1844, by Robert L. Johnson, then only seven¬ 
teen years of age. Johnson had been a clerk for Pomeroy & Company in 
Albany, and in May, 1845, was agent at Albany for both Thompson & Company 
and Pomeroy & Company, who occupied the same building. In 1847, he started an 
express between Albany and Troy, over the Troy and Greenbush railroad; and in 
the spring of 1853 he became a partner in the firm of Thompson & Company. 

On the 1 st of July, 1854, Adams & Company, the Harnden Express, 
Hoey & Company’s New York and Charleston Express, Stimson & Company’s 
New York and New Orleans Express, and Kinsley & Company were consolidated, 

under the name of the Adams Express Company, with a capital of $1,200,000, and 

with Alvin Adams as President. In the year 1856 William B. Dinsmore was 
elected President, which office he still holds. The Adams Express Company 
extended its business so as to provide continuous routes from Boston, New York, 
Philadelphia and Pittsburg west to Wheeling, Columbus, Cincinnati, Louisville, 
Indianapolis and St. Louis, and south to Richmond, Charleston. Savannah, Mobile, 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


5i5 


Montgomery, New Orleans and Memphis. At the commencement of hostilities in 
1861, the Southern Express Company was organized for the transaction of business 
over the latter routes, and since the restoration of peace it has continued to con¬ 
duct it, having an arrangement for the interchange of matter with the Adams 
Express Company, to whose Southern business it has succeeded. The latter com¬ 
pany, in 1879, occupied twenty-one thousand two hundred and sixteen miles of rail¬ 
way, making daily nine hundred and eleven trips amounting to sixty-four thousand 
five hundred and sixty miles, or nineteen million eight hundred and eighty-four 
thousand four hundred and twenty miles annually, paying to the companies for 
transportation $2,093,412; and it had four thousand two hundred and ninety-seven 
employees, paying them annually $1,568,730, During the same year it carried for 
the Government $661,000,000, and for the general public $1,050,000,000, which it 
received and disbursed at three thousand offices. Its principal office is in the city 
of New York, where it received and transmitted over fourteen thousand packages, 
employing daily over two hundred horses. The real estate owned by the com¬ 
pany is valued at $2,480,000. 

Harnden & Company were, for a time, proprietors of an express between New 
York and Albany and Troy, via the Hudson River steamboats, which they sold at 
the close of the season of 1842. Their agent on the river route during this season 
was Major J. A. Pullen; and he arranged to continue the business, under the 
name of Pullen, & Copp, for the season of 1843. This brought them in com¬ 
petition with Pomeroy & Company, who had extended their Buffalo and Albany 
line to New York. The competition continued but a short time, however, when 
Pullen & Copp became the river agents of Pomeroy & Company, conducting an 
express business from Troy north, on their own account. 

Soon after Mr. Pullen’s arrival in Albany, Mr. E. H. Virgil became greatly 
interested in the “ new idea,” and desired to establish an express between Albany 
and Montreal. He was then in the employ of a stage company, however, with 
an engagement which did not expire until June, 1842, and he therefore interested 
Samuel Jacobs, who in December, 1841, made the initial trip over the proposed 
route, and on the 30th day of June, 1842, Mr. Virgil made his first trip. In Feb- 
luary, 1843, Mr. Jacobs retired, and was succeeded by N. G. Howard, who also, 
after eight months’ service, became discouraged and left the business, being suc¬ 

ceeded by H. F. Rice. Shortly after, Messrs. Virgil and Rice extended their 
business to New York city. In 1850 the line was consolidated with Pullen’s, 
under the name of Pullen, Virgil & Company’s Express. In 1854, Robert L. 

Johnson, William A. Livingston and W. E. Hys established a Northern express, to 

run over the Albany Northern railroad, when first opened. In 1853, one-half of 

Messrs. Pullen. Virgil & Company’s interest in their business was purchased by 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


516 

D. N. Barney, Johnston Livingston and Colonel J. L. McKaye, and these gentle¬ 
men, with E. H. Virgil, J. A. Pullen, E. L. Stone, E. T. Dudley and C. A. Darling, 
organized the National Express Company, with Mr. Barney as President and Mr. 
Virgil as General Superintendent. The company does an extensive business between 
New York city and northern New York, Vermont and Canada. Its present officers 
are Alexander Holland, President; E. H. Virgil, Secretary; L. W. Winchester, 
Treasurer, and J. C. Fargo and Johnston Livingston, Directors. 

Henry Wells was the agent of Harnden & Company at Albany, at an early 
date. So early, indeed, that when he urged Harnden to establish an express 
between Albany and Buffalo, the reply was: “ Put a people there, and my express 
shall soon follow.” Wells was not disposed to wait, however; and so he soon sug¬ 
gested to George E. Pomeroy, a western freight and passenger forwarder at Albany, 
that an express to Buffalo would pay. Pomeroy made three trips as his own 
messenger, and then gave up the service. Indeed, the enterprise had been aban¬ 
doned, when Crawford Livingston proposed to Henry Wells that they unite with 
Pomeroy in reviving it. The proposition was accepted, and Pomeroy & Company’s 
Albany and Buffalo Express became an established fact. This was in 1841. The 
express company used the railroads where completed, and employed stages where they 
were still used as connecting links between the roads. Wells served as messenger 
for eighteen months. In 1842 he carried all his valuable parcels in a carpet-bag, 
and in 1843 a trunk held all his freight. In 1843, Pomeroy & Company estab¬ 
lished a Hudson River Express. Soon the firm name was changed to Livingston, 
Wells & Pomeroy; and when the latter retired from business it was changed to 
Livingston, Wells & Company. It was during the existence of this firm, that, at the 
suggestion of Henry Wells, a letter express was established. They advertised to carry 
a single letter for six cents, or they would sell twenty stamps for one dollar. The 
movement was a popular one, and Congress was finally compelled by it to pass 
a law reducing the rates of postage. The letter express had been very profitable; 
but the express company abandoned it, after the postal rates were reduced. Living¬ 
ston, Wells & Company paid $100 a day for railroad facilities. 

William G. Fargo, a native of Onondaga county, New York, after being in 
the employ of the Auburn and Syracuse Railroad Company for a year or two, 
entered the service of Livingston, Wells & Company, as a messenger. He 

gave such satisfaction that he was selected by Mr. Wells to manage a Western 
express, which was commenced, on the 1st day of April, 1845, by Henry Wells, 

William G. Fargo and Daniel Dunning, under the name of Wells & Company. 

There were then no railroads west of Buffalo, and Fargo made use of only steam¬ 
boats and wagons. During the latter part of the year 1846, Mr. Wells sold his 
interest in the Western Express to William A. Livingston, and removed to New 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


50 


York city. About the same time, Livingston, Wells & Company commenced their 
European Express, and established offices at London and Paris. Crawford Living¬ 
ston died in 1847, at the age of thirty-four years. The firm was continued as 
Wells & Company. At this time the principal express companies all had their 
offices at No. 10 Wall street, New York city. 

John Butterfield now engaged in the express business, over the Central line 
of railroads. He was a stage driver in his younger days, and subsequently became 
the sole proprietor of all the principal stage lines in the center of the State. He 
was the projector of the Morse telegraph line between New York and Buffalo, 
which he built under contract, and put into successful operation. He also founded 
a line of large and commodious steamers on Lake Ontario and the river St. 
Lawrence. In 1849 he was engaged in the transportation of freight across the 
Isthmus of Panama. About the same time he projected the Central Express 
Company. His associate in this enterprise was James D. Wasson, formerly a stage 
proprietor, and then postmaster at Albany. The firm name was Butterfield, 
Wasson & Company. In 1850, Wells & Company, Livingston & Fargo, and 
Butterfield, Wasson & Company were combined in two firms, Wells, Butterfield 
& Company and Livingston, Fargo & Company. These companies were comprised 
in one joint-stock concern, under the title of the American Express Company, 
with the following officers: President, Henry Wells; Secretary, William G. Fargo; 
Superintendent, John Butterfield; Treasurer, Alexander Holland. Mr. Holland, a 
son-in-law of Mr. Butterfield, still holds the office of Treasurer. 

In the spring of 1852, Henry Wells, William G. Fargo, Johnston Livingston, A. 
Reynolds and Edwin B. Morgan, under the firm name of Wells, Fargo & Company, 
established the California Express. Its original managers were : President, Edwin 
B. Morgan; Secretary, James M’Kay; Treasurer, Johnston Livingston. 

The American Express Company originally transacted the express business over 
the Erie railroad, as well as over the New York Central and Hudson River rail¬ 
road, but the Erie Railroad Company concluded to take the business in its own 
hands. The results, however, were not satisfactory; and on the 1st of August, 1858, 
the business was transferred to the United States Express Company, organized 
April 24, 1854, by D. N. Barney, Elijah P. Williams, J. McKay, A. H. Barney 
and Thomas M. Janes. This company now operates fifteen thousand miles of 
railway in New York, Pennsylvania and the West, employs about five thousand 
men, and owns some eight hundred horses. Its capital, is $7,000,000. The follow¬ 
ing constitute the present Board of Directors: Thomas C. Platt, President; Henry 
Kip, Vice-President ; Dan P. Eells, Secretary; A. H. Barney and George R. 
Blanchard. Theodore F. Wood is Treasurer. The Erie and New England Express 
Company, of which Mr. Blanchard is President, organized in 1880 for the purpose 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


518 

of transacting an express business between New England and the West over the 
Erie road, using the Delaware and Hudson’s roads to Binghamton, is in close 
relations with the United States Express Company. 

The Merchants’ Union Express Company was organized in 1866, with the 
following officers: President, Elmore P. Ross ; Vice-President, William H. Seward; 
Secretary, John N. Knapp; Treasurer, William C. Beardsley; Attorney, Theo'dore 
M. Pomeroy. For over two years it waged an aggressive war upon the older 
express companies, and was consolidated with the American, December 1, [868, 
under the title of The American Merchants’ Union Express Company, and with 
the following officers: President, William G. Fargo; Vice-President, Theodore M. 
Pomeroy; Treasurer, Elmore P. Ross; Secretary, John N. Knapp; General Super¬ 
intendent and Assistant Treasurer, James C. Fargo. In January, 1873, the name 
of the company was changed to its original corporate title, The American Express 

Company. Mr. James C. Fargo is now President of the company. 

The American Express Company transacts business over the New York Central 

and Hudson River railroad in this State, and over more than two hundred railways 
in the United States and Canada, aggregating about thirty thousand miles of road. 
It has over four thousand agencies and more than seven thousand employees, and 
its messengers, who travel daily over one hundred and twenty-five thousand miles, 
handle annually between sixteen millions and eighteen millions of packages, of 
which twenty-five per cent represents money and valuable shipments and seventy- 
five per cent merchandise. The records of the company show the latter to be 
worth about $48 per package, or $200,000,000. Add to this the money and 
valuables carried, many times more in value, and some idea can be formed of 
the magnitude, both in bulk and value, of the property intrusted annually to the 
care of the American Express Company, and of that larger aggregate forwarded 
each year by all express companies doing business in the United States. 

The Merchants’ Dispatch Transportation Company, of which Mr. James C. 
Fargo is President, is an offshoot of the American Express Company. The 
organization became necessary in consequence of the rapid increase, beginning 
in i860, of freight transported over railroads, in order that the more valuable 
articles of freight might be moved with the celerity which is frequently vital to 
the commercial community. The freight-express business soon became so large 
that a separate organization was formed, with a capital of $3,000,000, divided 
into thirty thousand shares, held by the American Express Company, the New 
York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company, the Lake Shore and Michigan 
Southern Railroad Company, the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis 
Railroad Company and other corporations the routes of which are used by the 
Merchants’ Dispatch. There have also been organized, by various connecting rail- 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


5 i 9 


road companies, co-operative through freight lines, to the equipment of which they 
all contribute. Among these may be mentioned the Great Western Dispatch, and 
the Erie and North Shore Dispatch, doing business over the Erie and its connec¬ 
tions; the Canada Southern, the Hoosac Tunnel, the Midland, the Red Line, 
Blue Line, and White Line, doing business over the New York Central. 

In 1879, the earnings from express matter of the railroads in New York, 

aggregating three thousand nine hundred and fifty miles of road, was $1,032,164, 

and their earnings from mail matter was $795,654. Of this amount, the New 
York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company received, from express matter, 
$563,027, from mail matter, $494,448 ; and the New York, Lake Erie and Western 
Railroad Company received from express matter $321,023, and from mail matter 
$162,569; the remainder being divided among various companies. 

There are in the United States over one hundred and sixty different express 
organizations, employing about twenty-five thousand men, with an aggregate capital 
and equipment of $60,000,000. In 1879, railway companies, aggregating fifty-seven 
thousand five hundred and eighty-five miles of road, received, for carrying express 

matter, $7,414,594, and for mail matter, $8,395,566; and the earnings of the 
remaining twenty-six thousand seven hundred and forty-eight miles of road were 
estimated at $j, 000,000 by Mr. H. V. Poor. 

To such large proportions has grown the business of forwarding parcels and 
products over the railroads of the country. 


CHAPTER V. 


Effect of the Construction of Canals and Railroads. — Consolidation of the Central 
Roads in this State. — Investments in Plank Roads.— Building of New Rail¬ 
roads.— The Revulsion of 1857. — Railroads become Profitable. — New Projects.— 
Albany and Susquehanna. — State Aid.— Revival of Railroad Building.—The 
Panic of 1873. — Railroad Construction Suspended.— Default of Numerous New 
Roads.—Town Bonding System Abolished. — Recovering from the Effects of the 
Panic of 1873. — Railroads Reorganized. — Railroad Building Renewed. 

The building of the canal and railroad between the Hudson river and the 
lakes had the effect of developing hamlets into thriving villages, and villages into 
cities, and as the towns along the great thoroughfare became more populous, their 





520 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


prosperity stimulated enterprise on the great highways centering in them, and led 
to the demand for new connecting railroads; and thus this Central system of trans¬ 
portation was like a main artery, sending the life blood of trade to and fro from 
the heart in the city of New York to the remotest extremities of the Common¬ 
wealth. There was not a city in the State west of Schenectady when the first 
shovelful of dirt was removed to make way for the Erie canal; and New York, 
Hudson, Albany, Troy and Schenectady, then the only incorporated cities, were 
comparatively insignificant, viewed in the light of their present development. In 1832, 
they were thriving, and welcomed to the list of cities the new incorporations of Utica 
and Buffalo; in 1834, Brooklyn and Rochester were added; in 1847, Syracuse 
joined the number; and in 1848, Auburn and Oswego completed the line of com¬ 
mercial centers, which were destined to be to their respective sections what New 
York was to the State, and soon would be to the continent — great receiving 
and distributing reservoirs of trade, that life current upon which depends the healthy 
activity of the energies of mankind. 

The railroads first constructed were merely crude and light iron courses, over 
which the iron horse drew passengers and baggage and express parcels. In 1846, 
the freight business of the Utica and Schenectady railroad was trifling, and yet this 
road was doing the most profitable business of any railroad corporation in the world. 
It was seventy-eight miles in length, and was constructed and put in operation for 
$1,500,000. In a period of about fourteen years, its total receipts were $6,856,046 ; 
its expenditures $2,637,842 — excess of earnings over current expenses during that 
time $4,218,204, reimbursing the entire cost of the road, and yielding a clear net 
profit of $2,718,204, or over eighteen and one-half per cent per annum. 

This was the situation when, by the release of tolls upon freight and the 
entrance of railroad corporations upon the business of freight transportation, new 
demands were created, and there was undertaken a greater work for Commonwealth 
and Continent. The road-bed and rolling stock of the old roads were cheap in 
construction and inexpensive in management; they were now to be subject to the 
ordeal of heavier work, necessitating the rebuilding again and again of their road¬ 
beds, as well as a new equipment of rolling stock. 

The year 1852 was an important one in the history of railroads between 
Buffalo and Chicago. In May of that year the Michigan Central and Michigan 
Southern roads were finished, various lines on the Lake Shore were being 
rapidly advanced, and on the 24th of January, 1853, there was completed the 
Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland railroad, the last link in the chain which was to 
bind New York and Chicago, first by rudely constructed bands of iron, and lastly 
by solid bands of steel. The Great Western railway of Canada was also in pro¬ 
cess of construction, and on the 27th of January, 1854, the main line was completed. 






PRESIDENT OF THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY 













RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


52i 


The inevitable must happen, and there was nothing more certain than that 

consolidation under one management of the Central line in this State was indis¬ 

pensable to economy in expenditure and the rapid dispatch of business. Already, 
in anticipation of the need of better facilities for communication across the Hudson 
at Albany, a plan for tunneling the river had been prepared, and in 1852 a bill 

therefor was introduced in the Senate. In 1853, the Legislature passed an 

act authorizing the consolidation of the New York Central railroad, and in so 

doing contributed greatly to cheaper rates of passenger and freight traffic. This 
act provided that on and after the 1st of May, 1853, t ^ le rate °f fare over the road 
should be two cents per mile ; that is, $6 between Albany and Buffalo, when three 
years before the fare had been $12, and formerly, by stage, $20, with the addi¬ 
tional necessary expenses incident to long and tedious travel. Meantime several 
organizations had been effected under the general law for the purpose of construct¬ 
ing roads over parallel lines, and these also were included in the terms of the act 
of consolidation. 

On the 17th of May, 1853, the articles of agreement for the consolidation of 

the New York Central Railroad Company were signed by the officers of the 

respective corporations,* and on the 6th of July the first Board of Directors was 
elected, at the City Hall, in the city of Albany, with the following inspectors: 
Henry H. Martin, George Dexter, Rufus G. Beardsley. The following were elected 
Directors: Erastus Corning, John V. L. Pruyn, Ezekiel C. McIntosh, Albany; 
Russell Sage, Troy ; Alonzo C. Paige, Schenectady ; John Wilkinson, Horace 
White, Syracuse ; John H. Chedell, Auburn ; Henry P. Gibson Canandaigua ; 
Joseph Field, Azariah Boody, Rochester ; Dean Richmond, Buffalo. Mr. Corning 
was elected President. At this time he was a Director in the Michigan Central 
railroad. 

The sections of the country remote from the railroads were now putting forth 
every effort to secure as easy communication as possible with the great railroad 
routes. In 1852, over $4,000,000 were invested in plankroads ; and there were 
projected numerous secondary lines of railroad. Of these, there were completed 
and in operation in 1852, as feeders to the Central, the Watertown and Rome, 
in 1854 the Rochester and Genesee Valley railroad; and on the 15th of December, 


*The consolidation w^s effected on the terms of the following distribution of stock and bonds: Stock —Albany and 
Schenectady, $i,535,800; Schenectady and Troy, $650,000; Utica and Schenectady, $4,500,000; Mohawk Valley, $1,575,000; 
Syracuse and Utica, $2,700,000; Syracuse and Utica Direct, $600,000; Rochester and Syracuse, $5,606,700; Buffalo and 
Rochester. $3,000,000; Rochester, Lockport and Niagara Falls, $2,016,000; Buffalo and Lockport, $675,000; Total stock, 
$22,858,500. Bonds — Albany and Schenectady, $86,000; Rochester and Syracuse, $2,000; Rochester, Lockport and Niagara 
Falls, $139,000; Total bonds, $227,000. Aggregate stock and bonds, $23,085,500. In 1855 the New York Central Railroad 
Company purchased the Buffalo and Niagara Falls railroad for $658,921.56; the Lewiston for $400,000, and the Rochester 
and Lake Ontario (Charlotte) for $150,000. The Niagara Falls and Canandaigua railroad, opened April 1, 1854, was leased 
September 1, 1858. 


66 



522 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


1855, the Black River and Utica railroad, organized January 13, 1853, was com¬ 
pleted to Booneville. In 1873 this roa d was completed to Philadelphia, New York, 
and a branch was opened to Clayton; in 1874 another branch was opened to 
Watertown and Sackett’s Harbor; November 24, 1875, an extension of the road 
to Morristown was opened and in July, 1878, the road was completed to Ogdens- 
burg. It may be added, that a wooden railroad still exists in the Black river 
district. 

In 1855, the Legislature deemed it best to provide for the appointment of a 
Board of Railroad Commissioners. The State Engineer and Surveyor was Presi¬ 
dent, ex-officio , of this Board; a Commissioner appointed by the Governor and 
/Senate was Secretary, ex-officio, and a third Commissioner was selected by the 

bondholders and stockholders of railroads. These Commissioners were empowered 
to investigate accidents occurring upon railroads, to examine into the affairs of 
companies, reporting corporations deemed guilty of violation of law to the Attor¬ 
ney-General, who was to prosecute therefor, and no new road could be opened in 

the State without their consent. In 1857, the law was repealed. 

The railroads were now doing a yearly increasing business, and the State was 

engaged in enlarging the canals, meeting the expense by high tolls and heavy 

taxes; then came the revulsion of 1857, when railroads, canals, and the public 

generally suffered. During this period, there was widespread agitation for the 
restoration of tolls upon railroads, and while the movement did not succeed in 
influencing the action of the Legislature, it resulted in a suit, on the part of the 
State, to have the law relieving the roads from the payment of canal tolls declared 
unconstitutional, which in 1861 was decided adversely to the State. Then came pros¬ 
perous years for railroads and canals, and the re-imposition of tolls was abandoned. 

The canals were better prepared than the railroads to meet the demand for 

freight transportation, consequent upon the short crops in Europe, which was so 
remarkably urgent in 1861 and 1862, when the country was suffering from a 
desolating civil war, and sadly needed every possible recuperating agency. In 1859, 
the following were the only dividend-paying roads in the State : 


ROADS. 

Cost. 

Miles. 

Dividends. 

New York Central, ------ - 

Saratoga and Schenectady, -------- 

Troy and Greenbush, - --------- 

Watertown and Rome, --------- 

$30,840,713 
480,685 
295,ooo 

2,150.295 

555 

21 

6 

97 

4 @4 

2 - 5 @ 2-5 

3 - 5 @ 3-5 

3 


When the agricultural South, with its cotton, rice and tobacco, failed us, 
there came a remarkable demand for the grain staples of the West. In 1861 the 
western railroads more than doubled the exports of western produce. The Illinois 


















RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


523 


Central Railroad Company, to which the government had given two and a half 
million acres of land which it had vainly offered for sale for ten or fifteen years, 
now took corn to the extent of eighteen hundred thousand bushels from those 
indebted to it for the land, and carried fifteen millions of bushels, or five times as 
much as in 1855. France, which had rivaled the United States in exporting grain, 
became a buyer in 1861, and the exports of flour and wheat from this country 
reached fifty-two millions seven hundred and fifty-six thousand eight hundred and 
thirty-seven bushels, and the production could not have been less than three times 
the exports. 

When this remarkably large demand came for the grain products of the great 
West, the New York Central was embarrassed by having forty miles of single 
track, which facilitated blockades of movement. The revolution effected by the 
exportation of breadstuffs will be seen most clearly by the exhibit of a few figures. 
In 1855 and 1856 the receipts for passenger travel on the New York Central 
were $3,200,000; in 1861 they fell to $2,300,000; and, while they increased there¬ 
after, it was a long time before $3,000,000 was again received. On the other 

hand, in 1854 the receipts for freight were $2,500,000, and in 1863 they were 
$7,500,000. There was no corresponding increase in expenditures; for, while in 
1854 the proportion of the expenses of freight transportation was fifty-two per 

cent, in 1863 it was only sixty-two per cent of the gross expenditures of the 

road. The tonnage carried upon the railroads in 1861 exceeded somewhat the 
tonnage of the canals, while the value was four-fold greater. The following is 
the statement : 



Railroads. 

Canals. 

Total. 

Tons, -------- 

Value, ------ 

4.741,773 

$ 773 ,° 9 6 > 5 00 

4,650,214 

$170,849,198 

9.391,987 

$943,945,698 


In 1851 there were one thousand three hundred and four miles of railroad 
in the State ; in 1861, two thousand eight hundred and nine — an increase of one 
thousand five hundred and five miles in ten years, under a wise fostering policy. 
In i860 the effects of the disasters of 1857 had been well nigh removed; the 
wealth of the country was increasing, and railroads were growing rapidly in favor. 
An extraordinary advance in prices followed, carrying up the market value of many 
securities several hundred per cent. The total cost of the railroads in the United 
States up to 1861 was $1,177,993,818 — an increase over 1859 of $9,073,000. The 
aggregate earnings in 1861, were about $140,000,000, or twelve per cent; the net 
gains, $60,000,000, or five per cent. This sum, however, was not paid out in 
dividends, to any extent, but was used to pay interest and redeem the principal 














524 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


of the heavy debt which burdened the railroads of the land. This resulted in a 
steady improvement in the value of railroad bonds. The mileage of new roads 
constructed in 1861 was only six hundred and thirty-one, as against the usual 
average of over two thousand miles in preceding years. The year 1863 was, to rail¬ 
roads, the most prosperous they had ever known. For the first time the Hudson 
River railroad, which had been deeply in debt, declared a dividend. With other 
roads, earnings increased, and dividends came with gratifying regularity; and the 
companies generally decreased their indebtedness, some even entirely liquidating their 
obligations. While new projects were rapidly perfected, sound principles of finance 
prevailed, and instead of the old practice of bonding and borrowing for construc¬ 
tion, earnest efforts were put forth to build only on cash investments, and for cash. 
During this year, May 19, 1863, a change occurred in the management of the Har¬ 
lem railroad, and Cornelius Vanderbilt was elected President. The Hudson River 
road, under the presidency of Samuel Sloan, proceeded with the construction of a 
double track. 

During all this period, and for sometime thereafter, Albany was the center of 
excitement with regard to new railroad projects. Two of these projects may be 
referred to as illustrating, the difference between a real need for a railroad, and an 
artificial desire for one. The people of Albany fancied that, in opposition to the 
Rensselaer and Saratoga railroad, controlled in Troy, they really needed an Albany 
Northern railroad, in order to bring trade to their city. So a road by that name 
was organized February 20, 1851, but in spite of money liberally invested in it by 
individuals and by the city of Albany, the road was sold under foreclosure sale., and 
October 15, 1856, it was reorganized under the name of the Albany, Vermont and 
Canada Railroad Company; again it was sold under foreclosure, and again, October 

5, 1859, was reorganized as the Albany and Vermont Railroad Company. The 
purpose all this time was to secure a paying road to Eagle Bridge, on the Troy, 
and Boston railroad; but there was no demand for such a road, and finally, June 
12, i860, it was leased in perpetuity to the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad Com¬ 
pany, which thereafter operated the road from Albany to the Junction. The tracks 
from Waterford Junction to Eagle Bridge were taken up and that portion of the 
road was abandoned ; but, under an agreement entered into on or before December 

6, i860, and confirmed by a lease from the Albany and Vermont Railroad Company 
in consideration of the payment of one dollar per year, executed January 1, 1862, 
the Troy and Boston Railroad Company claims title to the real estate. 

The other project illustrates the wisdom of constructing a railroad where one 
is needed. It is indispensable to the success of an ordinary line of railroad that 
there be a demand for it on the part of a sufficiently numerous local population to 
give it a sustaining traffic. The Susquehanna section of the State, formerly called 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


525 


"the sequestered region,” needed a railroad, in order that large counties, valuable 
in their productions, might have access to the leading markets of the State. Accord¬ 
ingly on the 2d of April, 1851, a meeting was held at Oneonta to consider the needs 
of the section, and on the 19th of the same month the Albany and Susquehanna Rail¬ 
road Company was organized, for the purpose of building a road through the heart of 
this region, from Albany to Binghamton. There was nothing about the project, 
however, to attract capitalists to it as a paying investment, and it was felt that if 
it was to be built at all it must be constructed by the localities interested. On 
the 5th of April, 1852, a bill authorizing the city of Albany to loan its credit to 
the enterprise was approved by the Common Council, and on the 22d it was indorsed 
at a meeting of citizens, presided over by Gerrit Y. Lansing, and addressed by 
Edward Tompkins, of Binghamton, Robert H. Pruyn, and others. The loan act 
passed the Legislature on the 10th of April; on the 22d of May a meeting was held 
at the Capitol, John Townsend, President, and on the 24th by a vote of 6,061 to 
1,437, taxpayers approved the proposition to loan the credit of the city to the 
undertaking. At this time, the bonding of towns in aid of railroads was an experi¬ 
ment, tried in but few localities, and in most of them with very unsatisfactory results ; 
but so anxious were the people along the proposed route to secure the building of 
the road that in 1853 they obtained the passage of a law authorizing town subscrip¬ 
tions to the road, by a vote of two-thirds of the taxpayers representing two-thirds 
of the property, and the following year the act was amended so as to allow a 
majority in interest and numbers to bind the town. Eavorable action was taken 
all along the line. In the summer of 1854, the work of construction was commenced, 
but in the fall it was suspended. After the recovery of the country from the finan¬ 
cial prostration of 1857, the project was revived, town subscriptions were renewed and 
continued, and applications were made to the Legislature for State aid. 

There was general sympathy with the project. The State had aided in the 
building of turnpikes and railroads, and it had constructed the canals; and these 
enterprises had brought the West nearer to tide-water than the counties in the 
sequestered region. It was recalled that, when Erastus Root, of Delaware county, 
was leading the opposition to the Erie canal, on the ground that this would be the 
result, to the ruin of the farmers of his county, Jedediah Miller, at the request of 
De Witt Clinton, became a candidate for member of Assembly in Schoharie, as an 
avowed friend of the canal project, and was elected, with two other canal men, and 
turned the adverse tide against the canal into action in favor of its construction. It 
was now the duty of the people to open up a highway to the section which had 
thus, by its own act, been put many days more remote from the centers of business. 
In 1859, the Legislature passed a bill appropriating $200,000 toward the construction 
of the road; and on the 16th of April, being vetoed by the Governor, the bill 


526 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


lacked in the Assembly only three votes of the number necessary to its passage 
notwithstanding the objections of the Governor. In i860, a bill was passed in aid 
of the construction of the road, which appropriated $1,000,000, payable in four equal 
installments, conditioned upon the completion of four sections of the road, respect¬ 
ively ; and on being vetoed by the Governor, it was passed in the Senate notwith¬ 
standing his objections, but failed in the Assembly. In 1861, a bill was passed appro¬ 
priating $500,000 in aid of the construction of the road, but it was defeated by 
Executive action ; and in 1862, another bill was passed and was likewise vetoed. 
In 1863, a bill appropriating $500,000 in aid of the enterprise was approved by 
Governor Horatio Seymour. Meantime, notwithstanding all the obstacles inter¬ 
posed in the way of building the road, and in spite of the fact that during the 
rebellion railroad construction was generally suspended, work was prosecuted upon the 
Susquehanna road, under the Presidency of Ezra P. Prentice, and it was opened 
on the 15th of September, 1863, to Central Bridge, on the 29th of August, 1865, 
to Oneonta, and on the 19th of March, 1866, to Unadilla. In 1865 and 1866, 
bills appropriating an additional $500,000 were passed and vetoed. In 1867, an 
act appropriating $250,000 received the approval of the Governor, and in 1868 a 

bill appropriating a similar amount was defeated by an Executive veto. The last 

rail on the road was laid December 30, 1868; on the 31st the Directors passed 

over the entire line, and on the 13th of January, 1869, the road was opened for 
business. In Schoharie county miles of trestle work were built along the sides of 
the hills, and at Colesville, Broome county, a tunnel two thousand feet long was 
constructed. 

Three railroad feeders, connecting with the Albany and Susquehanna road, 
were constructed in “the sequestered region.” July 15, 1865, a company was 

organized for the purpose of building a road in the Schoharie valley, and in 1866 

the road was opened; on the 8th of May, 1867, another company was organized 

for the purpose of continuing this road from Schoharie Court House to Middle- 
burg, and on the 10th of September, 1868, the Middleburg and Schoharie railroad 

was opened. The second of these roads to be completed, the Cooperstown and 

Susquehanna Valley railroad, incorporated under the general law February 25, 1865, 
was opened for business on the 14th of July, 1869 ; and on the 10th of June in 
the same year the Cherry Valley, Sharon and Albany Railroad Company was 
organized; the completion of the road was celebrated June 15, 1870, and on the 
1st of October it was regularly opened for business. 

In constructing the Susquehanna road, the “broad gauge ” track was adopted 
for the purpose of facilitating the transportation of freight between Albany and 
the Southwest via the Erie railroad. The great benefits of the road, however, 
were, that it brought North-eastern New York and New England nearer the coal 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


527 


fields of Pennsylvania, and secured to the people along the line speedier commu¬ 
nication with the markets on the Hudson river. 

The people of this section, however, were not contented with the prospect of 
railroad communication with Albany, and desired better facilities for reaching the 
city of New York. Accordingly, on the 4th of October, 1865, a convention was 
held at Delhi, Delaware county, the former home of Erastus Root, the leader of 
the opposition in the Legislature to the construction of the Erie canal. At this 
convention a general committee was appointed, and by its direction the Chairman 
called a convention of delegates from the Midland counties, to be held December 
13, 1865, in the city of New York. This convention met at the St. Nicholas Hotel, 
selected Samuel B. Ruggles for Chairman and B. Gage Berry for Secretary, and 
proceeded to organize the New York and Oswego Midland Railroad Company, 
with a capital of ten millions of dollars. On the nth of January, 1866, the 
organization of the company was perfected, and De Witt C. Littlejohn was elected 
President. The company proposed to construct a railroad from Oswego to Middle- 

town, and from thence to reach Jersey City by way of the New Jersey Midland 

and Montclair railroads. The main line was opened in July, 1871, and on the 
25th of August, 1873, the first regular trains for Jersey City and Oswego, 
respectively, started simultaneously from each city ; the distance being three hundred 
and thirty-three miles and the length of the line from Oswego to Middletown two 
hundred and forty-nine and sixty one-hundredths miles. 

Another railroad project designed to give to the people of this section more 
speedy communication with the Hudson river was organized April 3, 1866, as the 
Rondout and Oswego Railroad Company, and on the 9th of April, 1872, was 

completed from Rondout to Stamford, Delaware county, and from thence is being 
extended to Oneonta, on the Susquehanna railroad. It was reorganized May 1, 

1875, after foreclosure, as the Ulster and Delaware railroad. 

The impetus given to railroad construction by the prosperity of the roads 
during the war was very great. The tariff, imposed to afford the government the 
revenue necessary to meet the extraordinary demands upon it, encouraged home 
manufactures by affording protection to them; while the revolution effected in manu¬ 
facturing by the application of steam to all kinds of machinery, increased the demand 
in manufacturing cities for coal as fuel, and this in turn resulted in the construction 
of new avenues of communication with the coal fields of Pennsylvania. Numerous 
railroad projects in Central and Western New York, and indeed all over the State, 
were pushed with energy; many acts were passed by the Legislature authorizing 
towns to issue bonds to aid in the building of railroads, the year 1866 being 
particularly prolific in railroad legislation; and in 1868 there were introduced into 
the Legislature bills granting aid to eleven projected roads, proposing to give 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


528 

away in the aggregate $2,825,000. In 1869, in this State, eleven new railroads 
were in process of construction, and in 1871, railroad development was more rapid 
than in any former year, particularly in the Western States, there being built that 
year seven thousand three hundred and seventy-nine miles of new railroads. The 
more important of the new roads in this State will be referred to hereafter, in 
connection with the systems to which they are related. 

The failure of Jay Cooke & Company, involving the Northern Pacific Railroad 
project, was very injurious to new railroads, not only at the West, but also in 
the State of New York. Railroad building was stopped. Railroad securities were 
greatly depreciated. Capitalists were alarmed, and demanded immediate payment of 
all obligations. Railroads all over the country failed to meet the legal demands 
upon them, the amount in default being estimated at five hundred millions of 
dollars, and many roads were placed in the hands of receivers, or sold under fore¬ 
closure. Among the greatest sufferers was the Midland railroad, which, according 
to a report made in 1876, cost $26,288,408.93. On the 31st of May in that year 
the Western Division was sold for $25,000, and on the 30th of September it was 
reorganized as the Ithaca, Auburn and Western Railroad Company. It is a short 
line, thirty-eight miles in length, extending from Freeville on the Southern Central 
to Ithaca. The main line of the road, from Oswego to Middletown, was sold 
November 9, 1879, ar *d a new company was organized, under the name of the 

New York, Ontario and Western railway. The New Jersey avenue of commu¬ 
nication with New York city, since reorganized as the New York, Susquehanna 
and Western railroad of New Jersey, was abandoned by the New York, Ontario 
and Western Railway Company, and the latter company at once entered upon the 
construction of a line of new road, seventy-seven miles in length, from Middletown 
to Cornwall, on the Hudson river, and thence to Weehawken, opposite New York 
city. On the 17th of January, 1881, it let the contract for building a tunnel 
through the Palisades. The tunnel at West Point, two thousand six hundred and 
sixty-seven feet in length, the construction of which was begun in 1872 by the 
West Shore road, then nearly half done, has been completed, and is ready for 
the track-layers. The face of the tunnel is twenty-seven feet wide, by twenty-one 
feet high. The tunnel runs nearly under the Government Observatory, and the 
Secretary of War required the railroad company to rebuild a new observatory in 
another part of the reservation, which has been done, at an expense of $50,000. 

The New York, West Shore and Chicago Railroad Company, organized July 
19, 1870, went into the hands of a receiver in 1876, with but two and a half miles 
of track laid. On the 7th of February, 1879, it was sold to the trustees of the 
bondholders. On the 18th of February, 1880, the New York, West Shore and 
Buffalo Railway Company was organized to build a railway from Weehawken, 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


529 


opposite New York, along the west shore of the Hudson to Athens and Albany, 
and west, by way of the Mohawk valley, to Buffalo, substantially on the line of 
the New York, West Shore and Chicago Company, whose rights it acquired. The 
section between Cornwall and Weehawken, now being constructed by the New York, 
Ontario and Western railway, will be used by the two companies jointly, under 
contract. In 1881 the West Shore Company purchased from the New York 
Central and Hudson River Railroad Company the Saratoga and Hudson River 
railroad, between Athens and Schenectady, and will incorporate it in their line. 
The entire road, from New York to Buffalo, is being constructed under contracts, 
but no part of it is as yet open for traffic. The West Shore Company has also 
purchased the Wallkill Valley railroad, extending from Montgomery, on the Erie 
road, to Kingston, which will be to it an important feeder. A single-track branch 
will be laid from Coeymans to Albany, where a depot will be erected jointly with 
the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. The Ulster and Delaware railroad is 
connected with the West Shore system by a traffic contract; and the system, as 
a whole, besides its relations to through business, is one of great importance to 
the rich section of the State lying south of the Mohawk, between the Hudson 
and Susquehanna rivers. 

Another railroad project, originating during the revival of railroad building 
after the war,' and which was embarrassed by the reverses of 1873, was the 
Rochester and State Line railroad, extending from Rochester to Salamanca. The 
company for its construction was organized October 6, 1869, and on the 15th of 
May, 1878, the road was opened for business; but, being in default, a receiver 
was appointed June 7, 1880, and on the 8th of January, 1881, it was sold for 

$600,000, subject to the first mortgage and accrued interest. On the 1st of 
February, 1881, the company was reorganized as the' Rochester and Pittsburg 
Railroad Company. It was proposed to extend the road from Salamanca to 
Brooksville, Pennsylvania, and from Rochester to Charlotte on Lake Ontario, and 
to build a branch to Buffalo. 

During the period of railroad construction, from 1866 to 1873, many towns 
bonded themselves in aid of new projects to a very heavy percentage of their 
assessed valuation. When the Constitutional Commission met in 1873, it found that 
the aggregate amount of the indebtedness of towns, villages and cities remaining 
unpaid, incurred in aid of railroads, was $26,946,662.09. This large amount, however, 
was but a single item, and that not the largest, in the aggregate local indebtedness 
of the State. The Commission, believing that the power to impose these burdens 
upon the people could no longer serve a useful purpose, recommended an amend¬ 
ment to the Constitution, providing that “ no county, city, town or village shall 

hereafter give any money or property, or loan its money or credit to or in aid 

67 


530 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


of any individual, association or corporation, or become, directly or indirectly, the 

owner of stock in or bonds of any association or corporation ; nor shall any such 

county, city, town or village be allowed to incur any indebtedness, except for 

county, city, town or village purposes.” This amendment was concurred in by 

the Legislature and agreed to by the people. Railroad construction was now 
again nearly suspended. On the other hand, by the abandonment of the lateral 

canals, the burdens they imposed were removed, and to the railroads was left the 
transportation of coal from Pennsylvania and lumber from the south-western section 
of the State, thus giving new inducements for the development of lateral railroad 
systems. 

The following table shows the amount invested in transportation companies, all 
railroads with one exception, by the State and by localities : 


COMPANIES 

Y ear. 

Loaned. 

Charged to 
State Debt. 

Interest paid by 
State. 

Received by j 
State. 

Paid from State 
Treasury. 

Delaware and Hudson - 

1827-9 

$800,000 

Redeemed. 




New York and Erie ... 

1836 

3,000,000 

$3,000,000 

$3,217,096 86 

- 

$6,217,096 86 

Canajoharie and Catskill 

1838 

200,OOO 

200 ,OOO 

180,000 00 

$n,6oo 00 

368,400 OO 

Ithaca and Owego - 

1838 

315,700 

315,700 

336,114 67 

4,513 13 

646,302 54 

Auburn and Syracuse 

1838 

200 v OOO 

Redeemed. 




Hudson and Berkshire 

1840 

150,000 

150,000 

153,797 26 

40,040 60 

263,756 52 

Long Island 

1840 

100,000 

Redeemed. 




Schenectady and Troy - - - 

1840 

100,000 

Redeemed. 




Tioga Iron Mining and Man’fg Co.* - 

1840 

70,OOO 

Redeemed. 




Tonawanda - - - 

1840 

100,000 

Redeemed. 




Auburn and Rochester - 

1841 

200 ,OOO 

Redeemed. 




Albany and Susquehanna - 

1863-7 





750,000 OO 

Totals ------- 

- 

•$5,235,700 

$3,665,600 

$3,886,008 55 

$56,153 73 1 

$8,245,565 82 

Add donations to, and investments in the stocks and bonds of 

railroad corporations, by cities 

, towns and j 


villages. 






30,978,905 78 

Aggregate - 






$39,224,461 60 


* Subsequently the Corning and Blossburg Railroad Company, and now the Corning, Cowanesque and Antrim Railway, George J. Magee of Wat¬ 
kins, President. 


This expenditure has been returned in the increased valuation of property in 
every section of the State ; and that the increased value is due to the construction 
is demonstrated, if proof is necessary, by the fact that, until the Susquehanna road 
was constructed, there was a decrease in the assessed valuation of the counties in 
the interior through which the road was built, and that after it was built the valua¬ 
tion steadily increased. 

It must be admitted that, prior to the panic of 1873, there was con¬ 
siderable extravagance in expenditure upon railroads, and this, as well as the 
continued prevalence of war prices, made their construction and management very 
expensive. Since that time the evil effects of this extravagance and of the crisis 
have been slowly removed. The work of reorganizing bankrupt and defaulting 
corporations, and of placing their affairs upon a sound financial basis, has been 






























































PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY. 










RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


53 r 


well conducted. There have been some drawbacks —a partial failure in 1876 of 
the wheat crop in the North-west, some reverses to the coal roads, wars of rates 
between freight lines — but they have not been of a character to prevent the build¬ 
ing of such new railroads as gave promise to become sufficiently remunerative to 
justify their construction. 


CHAPTER VI. 

Railroad Systems in the Interior of New York. — The Erie Railroad, its Branches 
and Leased Roads. — The Northern Central of Pennsylvania. — The Tioga Rail¬ 
road Company. — Fall Brook Coal Company. — Lehigh Valley Railroad Company : 
Its Roads in New York ; the Southern Central Railroad. — System of the 
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company: Lines from Binghamton 
to Utica, Rome, Syracuse, Oswego, Buffalo and the International Bridge; the 
Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Railroad, from Niagara Falls to Rome and 
North to Watertown, Cape Vincent and Ogdensburg. — Ogdensburg and Lake 
Champlain Railroad.— Railroad System of the Delaware and Hudson Canal 
Company: the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad and its Extension; Rensselaer 
and Saratoga, and New York and Canada Railroads; Line to the Hoosac 
Tunnel. — Construction of the Tunnel.—Troy and Boston Railroad Company.— 
Boston, Hoosac Tunnel and Western Railroad Company. — New England and 
New York Enterprises. — Long Island Railroad System. — The East River 
Bridge. — Elevated Railroads: their Effect upon the Development of the City 
of New York. 

The railroad systems in the interior of the State are best considered by viewing 
them from the Southern Tier. The Erie railroad, which runs through this section 
of the State, has relations alike to external and internal traffic; but in this place its 
interior system only will be considered. Several short roads at the eastern end of 
the line constructed prior to 1872 for the purpose of providing increased facilities 
of communication between the city of New York and interior villages and the city 
of Newburgh, are leased by the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad 
Company; and in the western part of the State its branches are numerous and 
important. 

The construction of the Buffalo branch followed the completion of the main 
line of the Erie railroad. Hon. Silas Seymour was the chief engineer of this road, 
upon the line of which was his greatest achievement, the bridge at Portage, a 
wooden structure two hundred and thirty-four feet high and eight hundred and sixty 




532 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


feet in length. This bridge was destroyed by fire in 1875, an d has since been 
rebuilt, of iron. The Buffalo branch extends from Hornellsville to Buffalo. On 
the 16th of October, 1868, a company was organized for the purpose of constructing 
a railroad from East Buffalo Junction to the Suspension Bridge; the road was 
opened January 1, 1871, and was leased to the Erie Railway Company. The road 
is known as the Suspension Bridge and Erie Junction Railroad, and a road has been 
constructed from it to the International bridge by the Erie International railway. 
A company for the construction of a road from Lockport to Tonawanda was organ¬ 
ized August 31, 1871, and on the 15th of September, 1879, its roa d was leased to 
the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company. 

The Buffalo, New York and Erie railroad, originally the Buffalo and New York 
City, extends from Corning to Buffalo, via Avon, across the valley of the Genesee, 
with leased branches extending from Avon north to Rochester and south to Mount 
Morris and Dansville. The Rochester and Genesee Valley Railroad Company, organ¬ 
ized July 9, 1851, built the road from Avon to Rochester, and August 10, 1854, it 
was opened for business. The road from Avon to Mount Morris was opened June 
5, 1859, an d on the 4th of January, 1868, a company was organized for the construc¬ 
tion of a road, completed in 1872, from Mount Morris to Dansville. On the 1st of 
May, 1863, the Buffalo, New York and Erie railroad was leased to the Erie Railway 
Company. 

The Buffalo and Jamestown Railroad Company, organized March 23, 1872, 
opened its road in 1875, and after its sale under foreclosure, reorganized in 1877 by 
the name of the Buffalo and Southwestern Railroad Company, and on the 1st of 
August, 1881, leased their road to the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad 
Company. 

The Erie formerly operated under lease the Chemung railroad, organized 
in 1845, an d opened in 1849. The Canandaigua and Corning, incorporated May 
14, 1845, name changed to Canandaigua and Elmira March 8, 1850, and opened 
September 15, 1851, is a continuation of the Chemung road to Canandaigua, and 
on the ist of January, 1859, both roads were leased to' the Erie. On the 18th 
of February, following, having been sold under foreclosure, the Canandaigua and 
Elmira was reorganized as the Elmira, Jefferson (Watkins) and Canandaigua 
Railroad Company. These roads were operated by the Erie until the 10th of 
May, 1872, when, a majority of the stock having been acquired by the Northern 
Central Railroad Company of Pennsylvania, the leases were transferred to it, 
which thus acquired a line extending to Canandaigua in this State. To this system 
belongs the Williamsport and Elmira road, incorporated June 9, 1832, opened 

September 9, 1854, reorganized February 29, i860, after foreclosure and sale, and 
on the ist of May, 1863, leased to the Northern Central. 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


5 -> 2 

36 

In intimate relation to this system are the Tioga and Elmira railroads. The 
Tioga Navigation Company, of Pennsylvania, incorporated April 12, 1828, being 
authorized to build either a railroad or canal, constructed a wooden road with a 
flat rail, and operated it until 1840. In 1851, the company was reorganized as 
the Tioga Railroad Company; and it now operates under lease the Elmira State 
Line railroad, organized April 21, 1872, and opened November 17, 1876, which 
is a connecting link between the Tioga and Northern Central, and affords a 
northern outlet to the Blossburg coal region. This line is controlled by the Bloss- 
burg Coal Company. In November, 1881, the New York, Lake Erie and Western 
Railroad Company purchased the stock of the Blossburg Coal Company for 
$2,000,000, thus securing about sixty-six miles of railroad and about twenty-eight 
thousand acres of coal lands, producing about four hundred thousand tons of coal 
annually; these lands are, besides, heavily timbered. 

The Fall Brook Coal Company, of the same section, of which George J. 
Magee, of Watkins, is President, is likewise provided with a northern outlet, through 
railroads operated under lease. These are, the Corning, Cowanesque and Antrim 
road, formed by a consolidation, January 1, 1873, of the Blossburg and Corning, 
and the Wellsboro and Lawrenceville roads; and a road, extending from Geneva 
to Corning, in this State, organized August 27, 1875, an d opened December 10, 
1877, known as the Syracuse, Geneva and Corning railroad. 

The Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, of Pennsylvania, which extends from 
Phillipsburg northwest, through the Lehigh region, owns a controlling interest in the 
Pennsylvania and New York road, organized in 1867 and opened in 1869, and 
extending from Wilkesbarre to Lackawanna junction ; and it also owns a controlling 
interest in the Geneva, Ithaca and Sayre railroad. The Geneva and Ithaca road, 
opened in 1871, and the Ithaca and Athens road, opened in 1874, were consoli¬ 
dated May 25, 1874, as the Geneva, Ithaca and Athens Railroad Company; and 
this company, on the 24th of March, 1875, was placed in the hands of a receiver. 
The Lehigh Valley Railroad Company acquired a controlling interest in the Geneva, 
Ithaca and Athens Railroad Company, September 1, 1876, and on the 2d of October 
following, it was reorganized as the Geneva, Ithaca and Sayre Railroad Company. 
The Legislature, April 5, 1879, consolidated with this line the Cayuga Southern 
railroad, extending from Cayuga to Ithaca, organized as the Cayuga Lake railroad 
in 1867, opened May 1, 1873, sold under foreclosure, July 26, 1877, and then reor¬ 
ganized as the Cayuga Southern. The Lehigh Valley Railroad Company is also a 
large owner of the stock of its natural ally, the Southern Central Railroad Com¬ 
pany, which was organized November 17, 1865, for the purpose of extending the 
Lehigh Valley road, and affording it an outlet for its coal traffic to the Northern 
lakes and Canada. The Southern Central road, opened November 4, 1871, extends 


534 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


from Fairhaven, on Lake Ontario, through Auburn and Owego, to the Pennsylvania 
State line. 

On the 2d of June, 1862, the Erie Railway Company leased the Lackawaxen 
branch of the Pennsylvania Coal Company’s railroad, which had been built in its 
interest; on the 1st of January, 1869, it leased the Jefferson railroad, extending 

from Susquehanna to Carbondale; and it subsequently acquired considerable interest 
in the anthracite coal lands located in the Wyoming valley. These facilities, 
however, were incomplete, expensive and unsatisfactory; and accordingly the New 
York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company has recently entered into a con¬ 
tract with the Pennsylvania Coal Company for the use of their lands and planes 
over the mountains, and for a standard oruas;e railroad, to be known as the Erie 
and Wyoming Valley Railroad, over which cars can be run direct to the collieries 
of the various companies. By this contract, in addition to other advantages, the 
Erie acquires the entire product of the collieries of the Pennsylvania Coal Com¬ 
pany. On the 1 st of May, 1882, the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad 
Company also entered into a contract with the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company 
for its entire business west of Waverly; and each of the two companies owns 
half of the stock of the Buffalo Creek Railroad Company, organized January 25, 

1869, and owning a road, opened May 10, 1874, extending from Buffalo to the 
light-house at the harbor. 

Some years since the Erie Railway Company became the owner, in fee, of 
about eighteen thousand acres of coal lands in the counties of Jefferson, Elk and 
McKean, in the State of Pennsylvania, and also the owner of the mineral rights 

in about an equal number of acres, in all about thirty-six thousand acres, and all 

the lands are heavily timbered. In order to reach their bituminous coal fields, the 
New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company have recently constructed 
an extension of the Buffalo, Bradford and Pittsburg railroad, a consolidation of the 
Buffalo and Pittsburg and the Buffalo and Bradford railroads, effected March 22, 
1859-—" a road opened January 5, 1866, designed to reach the Bradford oil regions, 
extending from Carrolton, New York, to Gilesville, Pennsylvania. The continua¬ 
tion of this road to Johnsonburg has just been completed. The Pennsylvania 
Railroad Company will construct a road from Johnsonburg to connect at Falls 
creek with the Allegheny Valley road, and the Erie road will construct a branch 
line into the mines. On the line of the Bradford extension, the Erie Company has 
constructed, under charge of Octave Chanute, Chief Engineer, t^ie highest viaduct 
in the world. This viaduct crosses a deep gorge through which flows the waters 
of the Kinzua creek, which is here a comparatively insignificant stream. It is two 
thousand and fifty-two feet long, three hundred and one feet above the water in 
the creek, and two thousand and sixty-five feet above the sea; and is near the 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


535 


summit of a spur of the Allegheny mountains. It was erected between the 5th 
of May and the 29th of August, 1882, contains one thousand five hundred and 
sixty-two tons of iron, and forty-four tons of steel in track and fastenings; and 
is said by that eminent authority, the London Engineering , to be “designed to 
sustain for its live load a train of consolidated engines of the Erie pattern, covering 
it from end to end, and weighing each, loaded, seventy tons, or an aggregate of 
two thousand six hundred and sixty tons for the entire viaduct.” 

The facilities of the Erie railroad for distributing coal East, North and West 
are thus seen to be very great, and the amount of coal transported over its lines 
is very large, reaching in 1881 five million five hundred and eighteen thousand 
eight hundred and fifty tons, for carrying which the company received $4,853,427.37, 
or eight hundred and forty-five one-thousandths of a cent per ton per mile, being 
in excess of the average freight earnings of the road, which were eight hundred 
and five one-thousandths of a cent per mile. 

The system which has been built up by the Delaware, Lackawanna and 
Western Railroad Company, a corporation organized under the laws of Pennsylvania, 
but having its main office in the city of New York, has long been one of great 
importance in the interior, and is becoming one of great interest to the entire 
State. It is conducted under the presidency of Samuel Sloan, long connected with 
the leading railroads of New York, and capitalists in the city of New York are 
largely interested in the enterprise. The company, owning twenty-five thousand 
acres of valuable coal lands in Pennsylvania, on the 20th of October, 1851, opened 
a railroad from Scranton to Great Bend, on the Susquehanna, and on the 27th 
of May, 1856, it opened a line of railroad from Scranton to the Delaware river, 
having already leased the Warren railroad, in New Jersey, which was completed 
the following June, giving it a connection with the Central railroad, of New Jersey, 
by means of which it secured direct communication with New York city, and 
which, up to 1875, was used by the company as its outlet to the Hudson river. On 
the 1st of January, 1855, the company leased the Cayuga and Susquehanna, or 
the reorganized Ithaca and Owego, and for the purpose of reaching it entered into 
a traffic arrangement with the Erie road. The company next secured control of 
the Syracuse and Binghamton railroad, organized August 13, 1851, opened October 
23, 1854, and reorganized April 30, 1857, after foreclosure, as the Syracuse, Bing¬ 
hamton and New York railroad, after which it was leased to the Delaware, 
Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company. 

In 1866, the Morris and Essex railroad, in New Jersey, was completed, and 
in 1868 it was leased to the Lackawanna Company, thus affording it an inde¬ 
pendent line to Hoboken. The following year, March 4, 1869, the Valley Railway 


53 6 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


Company was organized, for the purpose of constructing a road from Great Bend 
to Binghamton; its property was leased to the Lackawanna April 15, 1869, and on 
the 1 st of October, 1871, the road was completed, thus giving the company a 
through line from New York to Syracuse. Meantime, February 13, 1869, the 
company leased the Oswego and Syracuse railroad, which was opened May 14, 
1848, under a charter granted by the Legislature, April 29, 1839, as amended May 
14, 1845, thus extending its line to Lake Ontario; and on the 18th of October, 
1869, a company was organized for the purpose of constructing a road from 
Chenango Forks, on the Syracuse road, to Greene, in Chenango county, which 
was leased on the 20th of April, 1870, and on the 4th of November following 
was put in operation. This last road connected at Greene with the line of the 
Utica, Chenango and Susquehanna Valley Railroad Company, organized June 11, 
1866, and in 1870 a lease was taken of the road, which, October 10, 1872, was 
opened for business. 

The Utica, Clinton and Binghamton Railroad Company, organized December 
19, 1869, constructed a road from Utica to Smith’s valley, on the Midland road, 
where a few miles of road would connect it with the Utica, Chenango and Susque¬ 
hanna Valley railroad. The Clinton road was completed June 22, 1872, and was 

leased to the Midland, which, in 1870, entered into a contract with the Delaware 

and Hudson Canal Company to carry coal from Sidney Plains to the Lakes. The 
Midland, however, transferred its lease to the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, 
but the Clinton road, with its Rome branch, is now operated by the Delaware, 

Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company. 

On the 24th of August, 1880, the New -York, Lackawanna and Western railway 
was organized, with Samuel Sloan for President, for the purpose of constructing 
a railroad, in continuation of the Lackawanna system, from Binghamton to Buffalo; 
the road was in operation September 30, 1881, and in October, 1882, was com¬ 

pleted to the International Bridge, at Black Rock. 

The Lackawanna system is intimately related with the Rome, Watertown and 
Ogdensburg system, of which Mr. Sloan is President. 

The Lake Ontario Shore Railroad Company was organized March 17, 1858; 
and on the 6th of October, 1869, a trans-continental railroad convention was held 
at Oswego, to promote the efforts to secure a continuous line of independent 
railway from Chicago to the sea-board, over this route, the objective points being 
Portland and Boston. It was afterward proposed to build a road east of Oswego 
through Glens Falls, which is at nearly equi-distances from New York, Boston, 
and Portland. The Shore road was completed to Ontario in 1873, when it became 
embarrassed by the crisis which proved fatal to so many railroads; on the 12th 
of May, 1874, it passed under the control of the Rome, Watertown and Ogdens- 




PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL EXPRESS COMPANY. 










RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


Do/ 

burg Railroad Company, and on the 22d of September following was bought at 
auction in the interest of Moses Taylor, Samuel Sloan, George B. Sloan and 
others. The Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg railroad also acquired control in 
May, 1874, of the Syracuse Northern railroad, organized February 25, 1868, and 
opened in 1871 and 1872 ; and on the 1st of August, 1875, it bought the road 
under foreclosure, consolidating it, on the 19th of October, with its own organi¬ 
zation. The Oswego and Rome railroad, organized April 11, 1863, and opened 
January 1, 1866, is also operated under lease by this company. In 1876, the 
Lake Ontario Shore railroad was completed to Lewiston. At this time Mr. 
Sloan was President of the Michigan Central Railroad Company, and in December, 
1877, he was elected President of the Rome, Watertown and Odgensburg Company. 

The Lackawanna system thus extends through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and 
Central New York, with its beautiful scenery and thriving villages, to the popu¬ 
lous cities of Utica, Rome, Syracuse, Oswego, and Buffalo, to the great advantage 
of their valuable manufacturing interests; and it is continued beyond the line of the 
Central railroad, to Northern New York, by means of the Rome, Watertown and 
Ogdensburg system. This system, stretching from Niagara Falls to Rome, reaches 
north to Watertown, Cape Vincent, and Ogdensburg. 

The Ogdensburg and Lake Champlain railroad was leased in 1870 to the 
Vermont Central Railroad Company. In 1876, it was recovered for non-payment 
of rent, and restored to the old management. At Rouse’s Point it has three 
outlets; one by way of the Delaware and Hudson to New York city; another to 
Boston by way of the Vermont Central, which is the readiest avenue to New 
England, and by a new route completed in 1877, called the Portland-Ogdensburg, 
to Portland, and also to Boston. In 1879, this road was supplied with steel rails. 

The following table gives the number of miles of railroad owned, leased, con¬ 
trolled and operated by the various companies of which Mr. Sloan is President, with 


the Ogdensburg and Lake Champlain railroad: 

Morris and Essex railroad in New Jersey ----- 195.04 

Delaware, Lackawanna and Western, in Pennsylvania - - 210.30 

Railroads in Central New York - - - - - - - 311.54 

New York, Lackawanna and Western ----- 210.00 

Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg ------ 408.88 

Ogdensburg and Lake Champlain ------ 118.00 

Total.- - i, 453-76 


In continuation of this system, a road is projected from Potsdam junction to 

Champlain junction, affording a shorter route to Montreal and the eastern portion 

of the Dominion of Canada. 

68 






RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 




8 


The railroad system of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, organized 
under the Presidency of Thomas Dickson, connecting the Scranton coal region and 
the rich iron mines west of Lake Champlain with each other, and each with the 
manufacturing cities of Albany and Troy, and extending to Montreal through some 
of the grandest natural scenery in the world, is of great importance in the develop¬ 
ment of the State. This company leased in perpetuity the Albany and Susque¬ 
hanna railroad February 24, 1870, and at once improved its condition and extended 
it to the coal fields. This involved the construction of a railroad from Nineveh 
south to Susquehanna, connecting with the Jefferson railroad, the use of which had 
been secured by contract with the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad 
Company, and the building of a road, in continuation of the Jefferson, from 
Carbondale to Olyphant. On the 2d of August, 1871, the first locomotive passed 
over the road from Nineveh to Lanesboro, and the same year a second rail was 
laid on the Susquehanna road, adapting it to the narrow gauge. In 1872, these 
improvements were completed. Under the terms of the lease, the Delaware and 
Hudson Canal Company pay an annual rental of seven per cent upon the stock 
and bonds of the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad Company, the latter making 
the improvements and charging it to the construction account. This account 
practically closed in 1876, and on the 1st of January, 1877, the capital account 
stood as follows: Stock, $3,500,000; bonds, $6,045,000; total, $9,545,000, upon which 
sum interest at seven per cent is paid by the Delaware and Hudson Canal 
Company. 

The Rensselaer and Saratoga railroad, which had long been one of the 
strongest secondary railroad corporations in the State, was next secured. In i860, 
the property of this road had been greatly increased. On the 13th of June in 
that year, it leased the Saratoga and Schenectady railroad, and two days later it 
leased the Albany and Vermont railroad ; and on the same day it was consolidated 
with the Troy, Salem and Rutland railroad, extending from Eagle Bridge to Rut¬ 
land, and with the Saratoga and Whitehall road, connecting Saratoga and Rutland. 
On the 4th of July, 1869, it leased the Glens Falls branch, extending to Fort 
Edward and Glens Falls. On the 1st of May, 1871, the road was leased to the 
Delaware and Hudson Canal Company at eight per cent upon its capital account, 
which, March 23, 1876, was as follows: Stock, $6,762,900; bonds, $2,000,000; 

total, $8,762,900. 

For years, efforts had been made to secure the construction of a railroad on 
the west side of Lake Champlain. On the 30th of January, 1866, at a meeting 
held at Plattsburg, the Whitehall and Plattsburg Railroad Company was organized, 
with Michael J. Myers as President. The same year a bill extending the aid of 
the State to the road was passed by the Legislature, but it was vetoed by the 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


539 • 


Governor. Several miles of road, however, were constructed south of Plattsburg; 
and another company, the Montreal and Plattsburg Railroad Company, built several 
miles of road north of Plattsburgh Under the assurance of aid from the Delaware 
and Hudson Canal Company, there was organized, on the ist of March, 1873, 

the New York and Canada Railroad Company, for the purpose of constructing a 

railroad from Whitehall to Rouse’s Point. Isaac V. Baker, who was for years the 
Superintendent of the Rensselaer and Saratoga railroad, was chosen President, and 
he at once let the contract for the construction of the road on the west side of 

Lake Champlain. The road was one of great difficulty in construction, and the 

extensive rock cuttings rendered it very expensive, averaging $70,000 per mile — 
and one mile cost $500,000. The first passenger train passed over the road Novem¬ 
ber 23, 1875, thus opening the shortest and most direct line between New York 
and Montreal. 

The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company also owns a controlling interest in 
the Champlain Transportation Company, an organization which owns three steam¬ 
boats on Lake Champlain and two steamboats on Lake George. 

The Schenectady and Duanesburg railroad, organized in 1869 and opened in 
1872, was also leased by the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. This line is 
now a link in a route from Binghamton to the Hoosac tunnel, and thence to Boston 
and other portions of New England. 

The following table gives the mileage of the railroads owned, leased or operated 


by the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company : 

Railroads in Pennsylvania -------- 114.92 

Albany and Susquehanna - - - - - - - - - 199.30 

Rensselaer and Saratoga - - - - - - - - 183.21 

New York and Canada - - - - - - - - -149.94 

Total. 647-37 


On the 2d of October, 1877, the Boston, Hoosac Tunnel and Western Railroad 
Company directed the immediate construction of a road from Mechanicville to Eagle 
Bridge, twenty-two miles, twelve of which were over the road-bed of the old Albany 
and Vermont railroad ; it being understood that the Delaware and Hudson Canal 
Company would build seven miles of new road, in order to lessen by several miles 
the distance between Mechanicville and Schenectady. 

In 1878, the Boston, Hoosac Tunnel and Western Railroad Company, which was 
organized in New York February 16, 1877, made arrangements for the use of the 
Rutland and Washington railroad; and on the 18th of May in the same year the 
Legislature of Massachusetts passed an act permitting the Troy and Boston Railroad 
Company to assign the lease of the Southern Vermont railroad to the State, in 





540 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


order that it might afford other corporations access to the Hoosac tunnel. If 
' the Troy and Boston Railroad Company did not avail itself of this permission, 
provision was made whereby the Boston, Hoosac Tunnel and Western Rail¬ 
road Company could secure the right to construct a road on the lands of the 
Troy and Greenfield Railroad Company, in which the State was largely interested. 
The latter alternative was adopted, the road was partially opened on the ist of 
January, 1879, a °d on the 22 d °f December, 1879, it was opened formally, having 
a contract of twenty years with the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, and a 
contract of five years with the Fitchburg Railroad Company, of Massachusetts, thus 
completing the connection between Binghamton and Boston. 

The initial movements looking to the construction of the Hoosac tunnel 
occurred as far back as 1848, and had their origin in a desire to provide a route 
in competition with the Boston and Albany railroad. With the construction of a 
double track on that road, and the lapse of time, this purpose became changed. 
The work of construction began in 1851. The tunnel is four and three-quarters 
miles in length, with a grade of twenty-six and four-tenths feet per mile, twenty- 
four to twenty-six feet wide and twenty to twenty-two feet high, the central shaft 
being one thousand and twenty-eight feet in height. Including $200,000 paid 
for the Southern Vermont railroad, the tunnel cost the State of Massachusetts 
over $18,000,000. The tunnel was completed November 27, 1873 ; the first train 
passed through it February 9, 1875 ; the first passenger train from Boston on the 
13th of October, and the first through freight from the West April 5, 1876, 
when the tunnel was fairly opened for general business. The tunnel is under the 
control of the Governor and Council. East of the mountains, the tunnel is worked 
in the interest of the Fitchburg railroad. The Troy and Boston Railroad Company, 
organized November 22, 1849, an d its road completed March 10, 1852, works the 
line west of the tunnel, which consists of the Southern Vermont, of which it has 
a lease, and the Troy and Greenfield road, of which it holds a lease from the 
State of Massachusetts. The Troy and Boston crosses from the Hudson river to 
the Hoosac river valley, which it follows to the Vermont State line ; then over the 
Southern Vermont to the Massachusetts State line, and then over the Troy and 
Greenfield to North Adams. 

Various railroads have been projected in this State in connection with the 
Hoosac tunnel. In 1870 there was organized the Saratoga, Schuylerville and Hoosac 
Tunnel Railroad Company, and a road has been constructed from Schuylerville to 
Saratoga lake by the Boston, Hoosac Tunnel and Western Railroad Company. 
In 1875 the Hoosac, Rome and Oswego Railroad Company was organized; and this 
route was favored by Mr. W. L. Burt, then President of the Utica, Ithaca and 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


54i 


Elmira Railroad Company, which opened its road from Cortland to Ithaca in 1872, 
and to Elmira December 14, 1875, was conducted for a time, sold under foreclosure 
April 30, 1878, and on the 1 t th of May following was reorganized as the Utica, 
Ithaca and Elmira railway. This latter road, of which Mr. Austin Corbin has just 
become President, has been conducted by an organization controlling also the Caz- 
enovia, Canastota and De Ruyter railroad with its leased portion of the Midland 
road, and it is expected, when completed, that it will form a line from the coal 
regions of Pennsylvania to Northern New England. Mr. Burt was Postmaster of 
Boston, which position he resigned in June, 1876, to devote his whole time to the 
Hoosac Tunnel road ; and in December following, at a meeting in New York, he 
stated that his plan was to construct a new line along Hoosac river, thence straight 
to Schenectady, thence on the south side of the Mohawk through Utica, Rome and 
Oswego, and thence by the Lake Ontario Shore railroad to Niagara river. On 
the 1 st of January, 1881, several companies were consolidated with the Boston, 
Hoosac Tunnel and Western Railroad Company, with the general purpose of 

constructing a road to Oswego and to Buffalo; and in this consolidation was 
included the Syracuse, Chenango and New York Railroad Company, organized in 
1868 as the Syracuse and Chenango Valley Railroad Company, road opened in 1871, 
sold under foreclosure in 1873, reorganized April 7, 1877, and in 1879 again 
placed in the hands of a receiver. 

Various new enterprises have been projected through the State of New York for 

connecting New England with the South-west. On the 13th of April, 1866, the 

Poughkeepsie and Eastern Railroad Company was organized, and on the 4th of 
September in the same year the Dutchess and Columbia Railroad Company was 
formed, the road of the latter being opened 1869-71, and that of the former 
in 1872. These roads were sold under a foreclosure after 1873, the former 
being reorganized as the Poughkeepsie, Hartford and Boston Railroad Company, 
and the latter as the Newburg, Dutchess and Connecticut Railroad Company. 
The Newburg road is leased to the Hartford and Connecticut Western railroad, 
a corporation which was reorganized August 1, 1881, by act of the Legislature of 
Connecticut. At Hartford this road connects with the New York and New 
EnMand railroad, the successor of the Boston, Hartford and Erie, chartered in* 
May, 1863, and reorganized in 1873, which acquired by purchase in 1878 a con¬ 
trolling interest in the Hartford, Providence and Fishkill railroad. 

The Poughkeepsie project depends for its south-western connections on the 
completion of the Poughkeepsie bridge, for the construction of which a company 
was incorporated by an act of the Legislature May 10, 1871, and was reorgan¬ 

ized in June, 1875, with John F. Winslow as President. This bridge is to be 


542 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


one hundred and thirty feet above high-water mark; it will rest on six piers, four 
in the river, five hundred feet apart, and one on each shore, which will be built 
of granite. The five spans will each be five hundred and twenty-five feet in length, 
the trusses will be made of iron and steel, very heavy, and will be between sixty 
and seventy feet high. The railroad track will cross on the top chord. 

The Newburg project has a ferry connection between that city and Fishkill, the 
termination on the Hudson river of the New England system, and contemplates 
also the construction of the Highland Suspension bridge, authorized by a law 
passed in 1868 ; the bridge to extend from Fort Clinton to Anthony’s Nose, at a 
height of on£ hundred and fifty-five feet, and with a span of one thousand six 
hundred feet. At Newburg, a connection is formed with the Erie railroad; and 
the Lehigh and Hudson River railroad, with which the Warwick Valley road was 
merged April 1, 1882, affords a short avenue by way of Belvidere, New Jersey, 
on the Delaware river, to the coal mines of Pennsylvania. 

On the 25th of July, 1S81, the New York and New England railroad was 
opened from Waterbury, Connecticut, to Brewster’s, New York, and on the 12th 
of December following it was opened to Fishkill, where it connects by ferry with 
the New York, Lake Erie and Western railroad. From Brewster’s it has a 
connection with New York city by means of the New York City and Northern 
railroad, originally organized May 21, 1869, as the New York and Boston Railroad 
Company, consolidated subsequently with the New York, Boston and Montreal 
Railroad Company, sold under foreclosure in March, 1876, and reorganized. This 
road, which was opened on the 1st of December, 1881, extends to High Bridge, 
where it forms a junction with the West Side and Yonkers railroad, the two 
roads having been merged. This line connects, at the termination of Eighth 
avenue, with the Metropolitan Elevated railway. 

The New York and New England Railroad Company leases the Norwich and 
Worcester railroad, thus controlling the Norwich and New York Transportation 
Company’s line of steamers; it is also joint owner, with the New York, New 
Haven and Hartford Railroad Company, of the New England Transfer Company, 
an organization having for its object the transfer of railroad cars by steamers 
from Harlem to Jersey City. 

The delays incident to the crossing of the Hudson river at New York city 

have led to the project of constructing a tunnel between that city and the Jersey 

side of the river. 

The entire course of travel has greatly changed since the Long Island 
railroad was the favorite route to Boston ; but in its place, with the growth of 

New York city and Brooklyn, there has grown up a Long Island system of 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


543 


railroads, which does an immense passenger business. This island abounds in 

summer resorts of superior attractiveness, and with the extension of railroad facilities 
is being covered with suburban residences. The Long Island Railroad Company, 
chartered April 24, 1834, its main line being opened July 29, 1844, leased from 

its completion, in 1836, the Brooklyn and Jamaica railroad and extended the line to 
the South ferry. This was abandoned in 1861, a new line having been opened 
to Long Island City, but in 1876 it was rebuilt as far as Flatbush avenue. In 

1872 the New York and Rockaway, in 1873 the Smithtown and Port Jefferson, 
and in 1874 the Newtown and Flushing railroads, were acquired under lease; and 

on the 1 st of May, 1876, the Brooklyn and Montauk, or South Side road, and 

the Flushing, North Shore and Central railroads, were also leased. On the 1st 

of January, 1881, this system of roads passed under the control of a new organiza¬ 
tion, with Austin Corbin for President, which had purchased a controlling interest; 
and during the year it largely increased its equipment, including steel rails, 

valuable dock property at Long Island City, and the purchase of the North Shore 
and New York and Long Beach railroads. This road aggregates three hundred 

and thirty-three and seventy-one one-hundredths miles in length. In the spring of 
1882 the Long Island Railroad Company leased the Manhattan Beach road, and 
now controls most of the pleasure and business routes on the island. 

The population of Brooklyn, as indeed of all Long Island, is so largely 
the overflow of the city of New York, that the need of better communication 

than is afforded by the ferries between the opposite shores of the East river has 
long been felt, and is growing more apparent as, with remarkable rapidity, the 
radius of the thickly-settled portions of Long Island increases. In 1867 the 
Leeislature authorized the erection of a bridge across the East river near Fulton 
ferry, and by an act approved March 3, 1869, the sanction of the Congress of 
the United States was given to the project. The construction of the bridge has 
since proceeded, but it has not yet been opened to public use. It has one span 

of sixteen hundred feet. The Legislature has also authorized the construction of 

a bridee to connect the two shores at Blackwell’s island. 

o> 

New York city was long dependent for facilities of internal communication 

upon street horse cars, the construction of which began before the war, and was 

rapidly extended during its progress. This was a most meager reliance. As rail¬ 

road lines multiplied throughout the State, and as, with the growth of mercantile 
and manufacturing interests, the population of the city increased, the necessity was 
felt for more breathing room, both in the interest of public health and to prevent 
the stifling of trade. Various projects were proposed for providing a more speedy 
system of transit, but they all failed. Among these were several propositions for 
building elevated railroads. On the 3d of January, 1872, the New York Elevated 


544 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


Railroad Company was organized, as successor to the West Side, and on the 17th 
of June following, the Metropolitan Elevated Railway Company was organized. In 
1875 the Legislature passed an act providing for the appointment by the Mayor 
of a Rapid Transit Commission, and on the 6th of July, 1875, this Commission 
met at the office of Mayor Wickham and organized by the selection of Joseph 
Selig-man as Chairman. The remaining: members of the commission were Lewis B. 
Brown, Cornelius H. Delamater, Charles J. Canda, Jordan L. Mott. In Septem¬ 
ber the Commission reported to the Common Council in favor of the completion 
of the New York and Gilbert Elevated railroads, and in October they reported in 
favor of the organization of the Manhattan Railway Company. On the 29th of 
October books of subscription were opened, the stock being taken by twenty-six 
persons, and on the 24th of November the company was organized. The two roads 
were then constructed, and on the 20th of May, 1879, they were leased by the 
Manhattan Railway Company. 

The construction of these roads has rendered it possible for the people whose 
business interests attract them to the city of New York to find comfortable homes 
within convenient distance; for they can now travel in the same space of time 
at least four times the distance that they could before the introduction of the 
rapid transit system of roads. The supporting area of New York city, therefore, 
has been increased four-fold, and its ability to extend its business has been cor¬ 
respondingly increased. As the completion of the trunk lines of railroads brought 
the entire area of the State within one day’s journey of the Metropolis, so the 
completion of the elevated system has produced a corresponding extension of the 
area in which men doing business in the city of New York can reside. At last, 
therefore, the facilities for the maintenance of its population have been adapted 
to the increased facilities of trade consequent upon the introduction of steam 
railroads. 













































































































































































































































































TO V L> T., IO N. 


Grand Central System. 

Nea T \ ork, Lake Erie & Western System. 

Lackawanna and Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh Systems. 

Lehigh Valley and Southern Central Systems. 

Delaware <fc Hudson Canal Co.’s System. 

Buffalo, New York & Philadelphia System. 

New \ ork & New England, West Shore and Midland Systems, and Utica & Black 
River, Ogdensburgh & Lake Champlain and Rochester & Pittsburgh Railroads.. 

Northern Central System. 

Fall Brook System. 

Dong Island System. 

Other Railroads. 

Canals. 


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. 

































RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION 


545 


CHAPTER VII. 

Systems of Transportation in New York, and their Connections. — Central and Hud¬ 
son River Systems.—Bridges at Albany.—Grand Central Depot and the Railroads 

CENTERING THEREIN. — BUSINESS IMPORTANCE OF BUFFALO, AND ITS LOCAL RAILROADS.— 

The Nickel-Plate Road. — Low Tolls on the Canals. — The Pacific Railroads.— 
The Lakes as an Extension of the Erie Canal, and the Relation of the Wabash 
System thereto. — The Erie System. — The Reading Company. — Progress in Rail¬ 
road Construction. — Fast Trains. — Railroad Iron and Bessemer Steel. — Import¬ 
ance of Steel Rails and Fast Freight Dispatch Lines to Cheap Transportation.— 
Reductions in Freight Charges on Railroads and Canals. — Statistics of Central 
and Erie Roads. — Differential Rates, their Advantages and Disadvantages. — 
Investigation into Railroad Management. — Railroad Commission Act. — Magnitude 
of the Railroad Interests of the Commonwealth and Republic.— Necessity for 
Wisdom in Management and Supervision. 

The systems of transportation in operation in this State, indispensable to its 
prosperity and greatness, which they have done so much to promote, with their 
related roads at the East and the West, are as follows : 

First. — The great water route from New York to Buffalo, with its associate 
fleets of boats on the Lakes, connecting with western railroads; and the ocean 
highways, with their steamers and sailing vessels carrying the produce of the con¬ 
tinent to every quarter of the world, and on their return bringing to the port of 
New York the products of every clime. 

Second. — The Central and Hudson River system, with its related roads, on the 
one hand extending across New England, and on the other reaching out all over 
the West, its main line forming an iron highway along the channels of water com¬ 
munication. 

Third. — The Southern or Erie system, bringing mountains to the level of the 
plains, connecting the banks of the Hudson with the prairies of the West, and dis¬ 
tributing widely the coal and lumber of the southern tier of counties in New York 
and the northern tier of counties in Pennsylvania. 

Fourth. — The Pacific systems, uniting the Pacific ocean with the Mississippi 
valley, and, linked by connecting railroads and steamers with the New York systems, 
constituting a vast channel of trade between the peoples on the shores of the 
great oceans of the world — the city of New York being the center of exchange, 
and guiding commerce through the electric currents of overland telegraphs and 

cables on the beds of the oceans. 

69 


54 6 


' RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


Fifth. — The Manhattan and Long Island systems, bringing distant homes 
within an hour’s ride of the busiest centers of trade, and contributing greatly to 
the supremacy of the commercial metropolis of the continent. 

Sixth .—The New England system, linking the East with the West through 
the Central and Erie, and providing extensive facilities of communication between 
Pennsylvania and New York and the Eastern States. 

Seventh .—The Delaware and Hudson or Eastern system, traversing great 
pleasure routes of travel, and bringing the East into close connection with the coal 
fields of Pennsylvania, and also bringing these fields nearer to the iron of Northern 
New York, the properties of which render it peculiarly adapted to the production 
of Bessemer steel, the great cheapener of the cost of transportation. 

Eighth .—The Lackawanna or Interior system, extending through the pleasant 
and thriving valleys of Central New York to the prosperous cities on the Central 
routes of travel, linking them with the great Northern route to the Pennsylvania 
coal fields; and now ready, with its new route from New York to Buffalo, to 
take its share of through traffic, which is increasing annually at most rapid rates 
of progression. 

Ninth .— The Northern or Ontario and Champlain system, composed of the 
Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg and the Ogdensburg and Lake Champlain roads, 
and providing Northern New York with avenues of communication with the East, 
South and West. 

Tenth .— The West Shore and Midland system, connecting the valley of the 
lower Hudson with the Delaware and Susquehanna region, and Oswego with the 
city of New York, and entering the field as a competitor for through traffic. 

Eleventh .— The Lehigh Valley system, uniting the Lehigh section of Pennsyl¬ 
vania with Western and Central New York and the great cities of the interior on 
- the Central route, and affording another line between them and the metropolis. 

Twelfth. — The Northern Central and Fall Brook systems, likewise extending 
to the Central route. 

Thirteenth .— The Western New York systems, connecting the cities of Rochester 
and Buffalo with Western Pennsylvania. 

The various systems of railroads in this State are clearly shown, in colors, on 
the accompanying Railroad Map of New York, which has been prepared expressly 
for The Public Service of the State of New York. 

The Central and Hudson River system, since 1861, when its freight traffic was 
greatly increased, has had an unexampled development, and has become the leading 
through route between New York city and the great West. The first step toward 
the unification of this line was taken in 1856, when an act was passed by the Legis¬ 
lature incorporating the Hudson River Bridge Company. The project met with 






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RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


547 


determined opposition, and its execution was delayed several years. In 1857 an 
act was passed providing that the dimensions of the draw should be determined by 
the State Engineer and Surveyor, and by John B. Jervis and Oliver H. Lee. 
In 1861, the following were elected Directors of the Hudson River Bridge Com¬ 
pany : Erastus Corning, Dean Richmond, Samuel Sloan, Chester W. Chapin, 
William H. Swift, Edmund H. Miller, Sidney T. Fairchild, Henry H. Martin, John 
V. L. Pruyn. In May, 1864, work was commenced on the bridge ; on the 22d of 
February, 1866, it was informally opened, and on the 25th the first train passed over 
it. This is now known as the upper bridge, and it is used exclusively for freighting 
purposes; the truss work is two thousand and sixty feet in length. In 1868 the 
Legislature passed an act authorizing the construction of a second bridge ; on the 
25th of June, 1870, the first stone in its construction was laid, and in January, 
1872, it was completed. The main bridge is one thousand five hundred and 
twenty-five feet long, the entire length, including approaches, being two thou¬ 
sand two hundred and fifty feet. It is thirty feet above low-water mark, and 
eight feet above the high-water mark reached in 1857, and is calculated to 
withstand a load of six thousand pounds per lineal foot. One hundred and ten 
thousand feet of piles, and sixteen thousand yards of stone were used in piers 
and abutments ; and one million one hundred thousand feet of timber, board 
measure, and two thousand tons of iron, mostly wrought iron, w r ere used in the 
superstructure. The draw weighs seven million pounds. Both bridges are owned, 
nominally and for legal formalities, by a separate organization, viz. : the “ Hudson 
River Bridge Company.*' In point of fact, however, the New York Central and 
Hudson River Railroad Company owns three-fourths of them, and the Boston and 
Albany Railroad one-fourth. Except for foot passengers, the bridges are used 
exclusively for railroad purposes. The development of the Central and Hudson 
River roads, and the improvement of their properties, was largely advanced during 
the long administrations of their respective Presidents, Erastus Corning and Samuel 
Sloan, by whom these roads, under separate management, were rendered valuable 
to the stockholders and beneficial to the public. 

In June, 1865, Cornelius Vanderbilt was elected President of the Hudson River 
Railroad Company, and in December, 1867, the New York Central railroad also passed 
under the same control. In 1869, the Legislature passed an act authorizing the con¬ 
solidation of the two roads, and on the 1st of November following, the stockholders 
of both companies, at meetings held in the cities of New York and Albany, respect¬ 
ively, ratified an agreement for such consolidation. The capital was fixed at 
$45,000,000, to be distributed at the rate of $207 per share of stock of the New 
York Central Railroad Company, and $185 per share of stock of the Hudson River 
Railroad Company. Consolidation certificates were issued, at the rate of twenty-seven 


548 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


per cent of the capital stock held by shareholders in the New York Central Rail¬ 
road Company, and eighty-five per cent of the capital stock of the Hudson River 
Railroad Company. There were distributed one hundred and sixty thousand two 
hundred and eight shares to the Hudson River Railroad Company, and two hun¬ 
dred and eighty-seven thousand nine hundred and fifty shares to the New York 
Central Railroad Company, and $518,310 among holders of the stock and interest 
certificates of that company. The following were elected officers of the company; 
President, Cornelius Vanderbilt; Vice-President, William H. Vanderbilt; Secretary, 
Augustus Schell ; Treasurer, Edwin D. Worcester, who, in July, 1865, had been 
elected Treasurer of the New York Central Railroad Company, in place of John 
V. L. Pruyn, resigned. 

The Grand Central depot, on Forty-second street and Fourth avenue, erected 
by the New York and Harlem Railroad Company, after its completion became the 
headquarters of the consolidated company. The depot is six hundred and ninety- 
six feet long and two hundred and forty feet wide, covering four acres of land 
and having in its roof two acres of glass. Under the foundations, walls, piers 

and openings concrete was laid, composed of broken stone, sand and hydraulic 
cement. The foundation arches are of four-inch hard-burned brick ; the vaults have 
hollow walls bound together with stout iron stanchions; the foundation walls are 
of blue quarry-stone, and ten million bricks were used in the superstructure. There 
are one hundred and eighty-two windows and forty-one doors on the outside of 
the building, and inside there are eighteen stairways. The building is lighted by 
twelve reflectors under the dome and two thousand gas burners, using twenty 

thousand feet of gas-pipe, and requiring twenty-five thousand feet of electric wire 
to effect the illumination and light the clocks. In addition to this, electric lights 
have been put in the car-house and waiting-rooms, and on the outside of the 
main building. Fifteen miles of steam-pipe are used in heating the depot, and 
in the winter five tons of coal, daily, are consumed. In the construction of the 
roof there were used four thousand tons of iron, eighty thousand feet of glass 
and twenty thousand barrels of Roman cement, besides immense quantities of 
English Portland cement. The roof is two and three-quarters inches higher in 
summer than in winter, owing to the expansion and contraction caused by 
changes in temperature. The signal tower, at the north end of the depot, is 
on a line of elevation with the third story of the building. The signals reach 

as far as the junction beyond Mott Haven, and no conductor can start his train 

from there until he receives his signal to proceed. In the yard facing the north 
end of the depot are fifty intersecting lines of track and as many switches, 
covering a space of four acres. In the erection of the building the first stone 
was laid September 15, 1869, and on the 7th of October, 1871, the first train left 










THE DREW-GRAND SALOON. 





































































































































































































































RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


549 


the depot. After its completion, it was said by the New York Tribune to be 
“by far the largest, stateliest, most costly and most commodious edifice devoted 
to like purposes on the continent, an ornament to our city, and a credit to our 
American architecture.” 

The new depot was opened for the purposes of travel, on the ist of Novem¬ 
ber, 1871, and in December, the offices of the company were removed thereto, 

Mr. Worcester being elected Secretary, and Mr. Charles C. Clarke, Treasurer, 

positions which they still hold. 

The New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad, which uses the track of 
the New York and Harlem railroad from Williamsbridge into New York city, 

under an agreement entered into March 17, 1848, occupies the Grand Central 

depot, to the great convenience of citizens of the State of New York, eastward 
bound, entering the city over the Harlem railroad. This Eastern road, there¬ 
fore, is essentially part of the Grand Central system of transportation. The 
direct line extends from Williamsbridge to Springfield, Massachusetts, and has 
branches, which, with leased roads, communicate with every portion of New England. 
The Boston and Albany railroad continues as part of the great avenues of com¬ 
munication between New England, Central New York and the West. 

The new directory of the Central and Hudson River Railroad Company 
entered at once upon the consolidation and improvement of the entire route. As 
early as 1866, arrangements were entered into for re-laying the track of the Hudson 
River railroad with steel rails, and in 1870 there was introduced the system of 
supplying locomotives with water while running, the improvement being first adopted 
July 2, at Montrose station. This was followed by an extensive improvement, 
rendering the Central road the only four-track railroad in the world, which involved 
the widening of the road-bed, the straightening of the track in many places, the 
erection of a number of new depots, and many other expensive additions to the 
facilities of the road. The work was begun in 1873, and was pushed rapidly 
forward in 1874, when it was completed. At Albany and Rochester, particularly, 
important improvements are now being made, at very heavy expense, which will 
render rapid transit through those cities more speedy and safe. In both cities 
the tracks crossed populous and busy thoroughfares, at great danger to life and 
limb, and causing constant and annoying delay to street traffic. The improvements 
referred to will happily obviate these evils. 

The Grand Central system of railroads divides at Rochester into two branches. 
The Northern line includes the Canada Southern railway, of which William H. 
Vanderbilt is President, and which was completed November 15, 1873, about which 
time the International bridge over the Niagara river, three-quarters of a mile in 
length, was also completed. The Canada Southern railway is continued from 


550 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


Detroit to Toledo by means of the Toledo, Canada Southern and Detroit railway, 
of which James Tillinghast is President, and Cornelius Vanderbilt Treasurer; and 
it also operates the Michigan Midland and Canada railroad, the Erie and Niagara 
railroad, running from opposite Buffalo to Niagara, and the Canada Southern 
Bridge Company, forming the connection between the Canada Southern at Parkers¬ 
burg and the Toledo, Canada Southern and Detroit road at Canada Southern 
junction, all opened at the same time and having the same general officers. The 
Michigan Central railroad, of which William H. Vanderbilt is President, Cornelius 
Vanderbilt Vice-President and Treasurer, and Edwin D. Worcester, Secretary, con¬ 
tinues the Grand Central system of railroads from Detroit through the interior of 
Michigan to Chicago. 

The Southern line of the Grand Central system of railroads consists of the 
direct road from Rochester to Buffalo, and thence to Chicago by the Lake Shore 
and Michigan Southern railroad, formed by the consolidation in 1869 of the various 
roads between Chicago and Buffalo. William H. Vanderbilt is President, Augustus 
Schell Vice-President, and Edwin D. Worcester Secretary and Treasurer of the 
Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad Company. The Chicago and Canada 
Southern railway, of which Augustus Schell is President, on the 9th of Novem¬ 
ber, 1879, passed under the control of the Lake Shore road. 

On the 13th of August, 1881, there was formed under the general laws of 
New York an organization known as the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railway 
Company, and it immediately entered upon the construction of what is known as 
“ the Nickel-Plate road,” between Buffalo and Chicago, by way of Fort Wayne, 
Indiana. This road was open for business the second week in December, and 
since then has passed into the control of parties identified with the Vanderbilt 
interests, Mr. William K. Vanderbilt having been elected President. 

The lines of road between New York and Chicago, on both the northern and 
southern routes, have offices in the Grand Central Depot. In close relations to 
these roads, and in fact being part of the same system, are several other 
important lines of railroad. The most northern of these is the Chicago and 
North-western railway, the main line extending from Chicago to East Omaha, 
where it forms a connection with the Union Pacific; and it possesses numerous 
proprietary roads in the North-western States. This line was further extended by 
the acquisition, December 16, 1882, of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and 
Omaha railway, a new Board of Directors being chosen, which elected as President 
Marvin Hughitt, the Second Vice-President and General Manager of the Chicago 
and North-western Railway Company. 

In close relation to the Grand Central system of railroads, and forming a line 
of communication to the South and South-west, is the Cleveland, Columbus, Cin- 




PRESIDENT OF THE NEW JERSEY STEAMBOAT COMPANY. 















VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE NEW JERSEY STEAMBOAT COMPANY. 










RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


55i 


cinnati and Indianapolis railway. The Indianapolis and St. Louis railroad, originally 
built in the interest of the Pennsylvania company, being in default, was sold under 
foreclosure July 2, 1882, and has since been reorganized. It held a lease of the 
St. Louis, Alton and Terre Haute railroad, which has recently been renewed, and 
the terms of the new lease guaranteed by the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati 
and Indianapolis Railway Company, thus securing to the Grand Central system a 
direct line from Cleveland to Cincinnati and St. Louis. 

The Central and Hudson River Railroad Company leases the Dunkirk, Alle¬ 
gheny Valley and Pittsburg railroad, opened August 14, 1871, and organized 
under its present name November 23, 1872; thus securing an independent connec¬ 
tion with Pittsburg and North-western Pennsylvania. 

There is now in process of construction a line of road from Antrim to 
Williamsport, Pennsylvania, connecting there with the Catawissa railroad, a line 
leased by the Philadelphia and Reading railroad, by which the Reading Company, 
under contract with the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company 
and its connections, will secure an avenue for the distribution of coal throughout 
this State and the West. The Reading Company is an extensive owner of coal 
lands in Pennsylvania. 


The great arterial system of communication between 
and the West aggregates the following mileage of roads : 


New York, New England 


New York Central and Hudson River, 

New York, New Haven and Hartford, 

Boston and Albany, ------ 

Dunkirk, Allegheny Valley and Pittsburg, 
Pittsburg and Lake Erie, ----- 

Canada Southern, ------- 

Michigan Central, ------ 

Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis, 
Indianapolis and St. Louis, - 
Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, 

New York, Chicago and St. Louis, 

Chicago and North-western, - - - - 

Chicago, Minneapolis and Omaha, - 


993.29 miles. 
202.50 miles. 
371.36 miles. 
106.05 miles. 
70.35 miles. 

403.64 miles. 
949.59 miles. 

473.65 miles. 
266.10 miles. 

1,176.82 miles. 

521.89 miles. 
3,276.00 miles. 
1,003.32 miles. 


Total, - 


9,814.56 miles. 


In addition, the Western Transportation Company, incorporated in 1856 for 
the purpose of conducting a forwarding business between New York and Chicago, 
by way of the Hudson river, Erie canal and the lakes, also operates the Western 
Express Company over the line of the New York Central and Hudson River 






55 2 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


Railroad Company, and practically forms a part of this system of transportation. 
The Western Transportation Company owns twelve steamers on the lakes, and 
has arrangements with Western railroads by which it is enabled to deliver freight 
at all points West. It is also joint owner with the Union Steamboat Company 
and the Anchor Line of a line of steamers running from Chicago to Duluth, at 
the head of Lake Superior. John Allen, Jr., is President and Manager of the 
Western Transportation Company. The general office is in Buffalo. 

The effect of the liberal policy adopted by the State with reference to trans¬ 
portation by canal and railroad, after the passage of the general railroad law, is 
shown in a most striking manner in the rapid growth of the city of Buffalo. In 
1850 the population of this city was less than the population of Albany; in 1855 
it had increased nearly eighty per cent, advancing from 42,261 to 74,214, while in 
the same time Albany had only increased from 50,763 to 5 7,333. A part of the 
increase of Buffalo, it is true, was due to the annexation of Black Rock, with its 
7,508 inhabitants, but this annexation was rendered necessary by the remarkable 

growth of the population within the original limits of the city. From 1855 to 

1880 the city more than doubled in population, its numbers as shown by the 

census that year being 155,137. This large increase has been mainly since 1865, 

when the population of the city was 94,210; and has been brought about by 
growth in manufacturing, which has been facilitated on the one hand by easy access 
to Eastern and Western markets, and on the other by increased facilities of commu¬ 
nication with the coal fields of Pennsylvania. These lines are both numerous and 
important. Besides the roads leased by the New York Central and Hudson River 
Railroad Company, the roads controlled by the New York, Lake Erie and West¬ 
ern Railroad Company, and the new line constructed by the New York, Lackawanna 
and Western Railroad Company, it has an important line of its own, organized by 
the consolidation of several local roads, and now being extended to Rochester. 

The old roads were the Buffalo and Allegheny Valley Railroad Company, organ¬ 
ized in 1853, and the Buffalo and Washington Railroad Company, organized in 
1865, which were consolidated February 3, 1865, as the Buffalo, New York and 

Philadelphia Railway Company; in 1873 this road was opened to Emporium, Penn¬ 
sylvania. To the capital stock of this company Buffalo subscribed $700,000. In 

1881 the organization acquired the capital stocks of several roads in Pennsylvania, 
of the Buffalo Coal Company, of the Genesee Valley Canal Railroad Company, and 
of the Rochester, New York and Pennsylvania Railroad Company. In addition, 
negotiations are now pending, which will undoubtedly be consummated as soon as 
legal formalities can be complied with, by which the Buffalo, New York and Phila¬ 
delphia Railway Company will acquire by merger the control of a number of lines 
of railroad in South-western New York and North-western Pennsylvania, forming 




TREASURER OF THE NEW JERSEY STEAMBOAT COMPANY 









CAPTAIN OF THE STEAMER 1 DREW," PEOPLE’S LINE. SECRETARY OF THE NEW JERSEY STEAMBOAT COMPANY. CAPTAIN OF THE STEAMER ' ST JOHN.” PEOPLE’S LINE 












RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


553 


connecting links between Brocton and Salamanca in New York, and Oil City and 
Titusville in Pennsylvania, which were consolidated January 20, 1881, under the 

name of the Buffalo, Pittsburg and Western Railroad Company. Regarding these 
various roads, therefore, as parts of a Western New York system, the following 
table will exhibit its extent: 


Main line of road from Buffalo, New York, to Emporium, 
Pennsylvania, --------- 

Olean, Bradford and Warren railroad branch, from Olean, 
New York, to Bradford, Pennsylvania, - - - - 

Kendall and Eldred railroad branch, from Eldred, Pennsyl¬ 
vania, to Fairport, Pennsylvania, - 
Bradford and Kinzua railroad branch, from Bradford, Penn¬ 
sylvania, to Kinzua, Pennsylvania, - - - - - 

McKean and Buffalo railroad branch, from Larabees, Penn¬ 
sylvania, to Clermont, Pennsylvania, - - - - 

Genesee Valley Canal railroad branch, from Hinsdale, New 
York, to Rochester, New York, - - - - - 

Rochester, New York and Pennsylvania railroad branch, from 
Nunda, New York, to Swains, New York, - - - 

Genesee Valley Terminal railroad branch, in and near city 
of Rochester, New York (about), - - - - - 

Buffalo, Pittsburg and Western railroad, - - - - 

Total (about), -------- 


I 20 

•55 

miles. 

22 

.96 

miles. 

15 

.00 

miles. 

28 

.00 

miles. 

2 2 

•!5 

miles. 

CO 

0 

• 9 1 

miles. 

11 

• 75 

miles. 

5 

.68 

miles. 

384 

. 90 

miles 

709 

.90 

miles. 


This system of railroads connects Buffalo and Rochester with an extensive 
agricultural region hitherto untraversed by railroads; and it opens a new avenue 
to the important lumber markets of Albany and New York, for the inexhaustible 
forest products of the region of which Emporium is the center. It provides a 
direct communication for the industrial interests of Buffalo, more than one-half of 
whose inhabitants are now identified with manufacturing pursuits, to the coal fields 
of Pennsylvania; and it renders that city a natural center of iron manufacturing, 
where the superior ores of Michigan may be brought and mingled with the leaner 
ores of Pennsylvania. It connects the system of the Pennsylvania Central with 

the railroads of Canada over the International bridge, completed in 1872, and 

with the port of Buffalo, thus providing that system with the best possible means 
of access to the commerce of the great lakes, of which Buffalo is the principal 

emporium at the east. Thus there is formed a new channel to the west for coal, 

and to the south for grain, and there is secured to western New York an avenue of 
connection with Philadelphia of great importance. 


/O 





554 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


The year 1869 was an important one in the history of transportation in this 
country alike as the culmination of events beginning in 1861, or consequent upon 
the revolution in commerce then inaugurated, and as the commencement of new and 
important developments. The Central Pacific railroad, the construction of which was 
authorized June 28, 1861, and the Union Pacific Railroad Company, sanctioned by 
Congress July 1, 1862, were completed in 1869, and on the 10th of May in that 
year the last rail connecting them was laid with imposing ceremonies at Promontory 
Point, Utah. The policy of the great trunk lines east of the Mississippi was being 
adapted to this event, and there was a great struggle to see which should be regarded 
as the most important outlet to the Atlantic. The State of New York, foreseeing 
the results of the contest, in 1870 adopted a policy of low tolls on the canals; 
and, when disaster came to forwarding interests, the tolls were further reduced. 
For a time trains on the Pacific coast were run only as far as Sacramento, connection 
being there made by steamer with San Francisco. Finally, however, the Western 
Pacific railroad was completed, and there was then an all-rail route from ocean to 
ocean. On the 1st of January, 1876, a train left New York for San Francisco, a 
distance of three thousand three hundred and sixteen miles, and reached its destina¬ 
tion in eighty-three hours and fifty-three minutes, running time. 

It has been feared by some that the multiplicity of railroads, and the rapidity 
with which transportation over them is effected, would result disastrously to the 
canals; and undoubtedly the effect of competition, not only between the railroads 
but between the great grain-growing sections of this continent and the granaries 
of Europe, has been such as to necessitate the recent abolition of tolls upon the 
canals. On the other hand, great transportation lines are organized on the theory 
that the most successful roads are those which place the products they carry 
on board vessels the most speedily. As the Hudson river is an arm of the sea, 
and the Erie canal its extension, so Lake Erie is the same channel continued 
and broadened, and Buffalo a great entry port for the products of the West. 
Vessels ply between this port and Toledo, at the western end of the lake, and 
to other ports, and thus the lake is the water route for the productions which, • in 
incessant movement, seek the ocean at New York city. The vessels on this 
lake thus form part of the system of transportation of the State. Among the 
most remarkable enterprises for making use of this water route and also extending 
its railroad connections, is the recently constituted Wabash system. 

The Wabash system of railroads was organized with the view of affording a 
connection between the ports of Detroit and Toledo, and the railroads centering 
there, and the great through roads of the South and West ; and while the aggre¬ 
gate mileage of roads comprised in the system is large, the respective routes are 
comparatively short. Connection is had at Cairo with the cotton-bearing fields of 


“THE ALBANY,” HUDSON RIVER DAY LINE. 



















































PRESIDENT OF THE DAY LINE STEAMBOAT COMPANY. 







RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


555 


the South, at St. Louis, with the Texas and Pacific railway, of which Jay Gould 
is President, and at Omaha with the Union Pacific, Sidney Dillon, President, and 
through it with the Central Pacific, of which Leland Stanford is President. Some 
of the lines of the Wabash system run through new and undeveloped countries, but 
the system, as a whole, is based upon the policy of reaching water by the most 
speedy route, and also of providing convenient connections between the trunk lines 
of railroad at the East and West. The Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway 
Company was organized in 1879, with Solon Humphreys as President, and A. L. 
Hopkins as first Vice-Presdient, Mr. Humphreys being succeeded on the 1st of 
January, 1882, by Jay Gould. One of the first agreements of the company was 
a traffic arrangement with the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad 
Company, with which close connections were formed at Toledo and Detroit. Two 
steamers were placed on Lake Erie in 1880 and two more in 1881, making four 
steamers in all employed by it in the transportation of freight to Buffalo, and thence 
by canal to New York city. It is, therefore, an important extension of New York 
systems of transportation. The corporate name is the Wabash, St. Louis and 
Pacific railway, and it aggregates three thousand five hundred and eighteen miles 
of railroad. 

The New York and Erie railroad, after many efforts to equip itself for secur¬ 
ing its share of through traffic and at the same time establish itself on a sound 
financial basis, was in May 26, 1875, once more placed in the hands of a receiver, 
Hon. Hugh J. Jewett having been agreed upon as the manager of the affairs of the 
road, under supervision of the court. During the ensuing summer, Sir Edward 
William Watkin, as agent for the English bondholders, visited this country, and on 
the 18th of September he submitted a report to the effect that the permanent way 
was equal to the standard, but that the rolling stock was defective, and he referred 
in terms of strong commendation to Mr. Jewett and advised his support by the 
bondholders. After being thus managed for several years it was sold at auction, 
April 24, 1878, in a foreclosure suit by the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company, 
under the second consolidated mortgage, and was bought in by Edwin D. Morgan, 
David A. Wells and J. Lowber Welch for $6,000,000 in behalf of the Reconstruction 
Trustees. On the 27th, the Board of Directors adopted a resolution tendering to 
Hugh J. Jewett gratitude and sincere thanks for his able, wise and “honorably 
energetic administration of the property and affairs of the Erie Railway Company, 
both as President and Receiver.” On the 1st of June following, the company was 
reorganized as the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company, and Mr. 
Jewett was elected President. During this year, the working expenses of the road 
were equal to sixty-eight per cent of its gross earnings. In April, 1879, the receipt 






556 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


of $2,500,000 in bonds duly signed by the English Reconstruction Trustees attested 
the continued confidence of the English capitalists in President Jewett. 

On the 24th of December, 1878, the work of laying a third rail along the 
entire line was completed, thus securing a narrow gauge, and enabling the company 
to compete with other roads for the east-bound traffic of western railroads, from 
which it had hitherto been excluded. Since 1876, the New York, Lake Erie and 
Western Railroad Company has owned the stock of the Union Steamboat Com¬ 
pany, which owns a line of sixteen steamers, connecting it with the various ports 
on the lakes. 

The Atlantic and Great Western Railway Company, which was formerly oper¬ 
ated under lease as the Western Extension of the Erie railway, after being several 
times placed in the hands of Receivers, was finally sold, January 6 : 1880, under 
foreclosure, to Reorganization Trustees, by whom, on the 15th of March following, 
it was conveyed to the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad Company. 
The line of this road extends from Salamanca to Dayton, Ohio, and thence to 
Cincinnati over the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton railroad, a majority of the 
stock of which is owned by the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad 
Company. The Chicago and Atlantic railway, a road lately constructed from Marion, 
on the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio road, to Chicago, is a western continu¬ 
ation of the latter line, and by an agreement entered into May 27, 1881, full 
control of the road was given to the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad 
Company. The Erie thus runs from New York to Cincinnati and Chicago. The 
Erie system therefore is as follows: 


New York, Lake Erie and Western, 
New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, - 
Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton, - 
Chicago and Atlantic, - 


- 1,020.37 miles. 
564.80 miles. 
341.04 miles. 
257.00 miles. 


Total, - 


- 2,183.21 miles. 


Great progress has been made in recent years in railroad. facilities having in 
view the comfort and convenience of passengers. Most of these improvements have 
been of American origin. While smoking saloon cars were first introduced, in 
1846, on the Eastern Counties railway, England, palace, hotel and sleeping cars 
are distinctively American, and owe their conception to the necessity of making 
long journeys agreeable if not luxurious on this continent of magnificent railroad 
distances. Pleasant as are these cars, however, there have been devised more 
important improvements in brakes, automatic couplers and compressed buffers, thus 
preventing the disagreeable and even dangerous oscillation incident to the old 









RAILROAD COMMISSIONER. 






RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


557 


method of making up trains with slack links and couplings. Safety switches, auto¬ 
matic electric signals and noiseless safety valves, all of great value, have also been 
invented. These improvements are all of American origin, and have been intro¬ 
duced on the important railroads. Movable steps, capable of being dropped to 
within one foot of the ground when trains stop, have been welcomed by travelers 
on various roads. 

Railway life assurance, originating in England in 1849, the various forms 
of accident policies, has become prevalent. Organizations for the mental and moral 
improvement of the vast army of railway employees also exist, and are conducted 
with energy, receiving the efficient co-operation of railroad managers. Among 
these may be mentioned the Railroad Young Men’s Christian Associations, which 
held their first international conference at Cleveland, October 25-28, 1877, thirty- 
seven organizations being represented. 

Fast mail trains facilitate the distribution of newspapers and correspondence, 
widening the area in which the journals of great cities can be scattered before 
night-fall, and bringing business men much nearer together in their ordinary com¬ 
munications. In 1864 there was only one postal car line traversing a distance of 
one hundred and forty miles ; in 1867 there were thirty-four thousand and fifteen 
miles of railway postal service; in 1876, forty thousand miles were covered daily, 
and in 1878 there were seventy-four thousand five hundred and forty-six miles of 
service. 

The first railroad iron manufactured on this continent was turned out at the 
Tredegar Iron Works, Richmond, Virginia, in 1837, commencing operations on 
the 8th of May. In 1846, sixteen establishments existed in this country, having 
a capacity of one hundred and nineteen thousand tons, or one thousand two 
hundred miles per year, being four miles daily. Until and including 1857, how¬ 
ever, the consumption of imported railroad iron was largely in excess ; since that 
time American railroad iron has been most largely used. 

The invention of the Bessemer process for the manufacture of steel which we 
owe to Europe, with the general introduction of steel rails on the roads of this 
country, and important improvements in railroad management, have effected a revo¬ 
lution in prices and solved the ^problem of cheap transportation. The establish¬ 
ment of various rapid dispatch lines, by which several roads unite in constituting 
a line for the transportation of freight long distances without breaking bulk, has 
contributed greatly to this result. Trains are now forwarded with comparatively 
little delay, the laying off of trains on side tracks being largely prevented, effecting 
a great reduction in time and expense. The capacity of a road, when all the trains 
move smoothly and ceaselessly at a moderate but uniform rate of speed, is very 
great. The tractile force necessary when a train is once under motion, with the 


553 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


elasticity and firmness combined in the steel rail, reduce to the minimum the expenses 
of both rolling stock and road-bed; and the combination of greater rapidity of 
movement with less wear upon the equipment in permanent way has resulted to the 
benefit of the public. In 1830 it cost as much time and money to transport 
produce from Buffalo as it now does from San Francisco; and hence, meas¬ 
ured by these two real standards — time and money — the continent has been 
reduced to the breadth of New York by the introduction and improvement of 
steam railroads. 

In 1851, on the New York railroads, the lowest charge for transporting a ton 
of two thousand pounds one mile was that of the Northern road, on which the 
charge was two cents. The Syracuse and Utica Railroad Company, the same year, 
reported the first cost to the company of such services at a fraction less than 
one cent and a half. The Erie road reported the cost at one cent and a 
half, and its rate of charge at a small fraction below three cents. In 1855 the 
cost to the same company was .01155, and its charge for service rendered was 
.02371, while in 1881 the cost had been reduced to .00529, and the charge for 
services rendered to .00805 per ton per mile. 

The following table will show the reduction effected by the improvements 
referred to on the New York Central and Hudson River, and the New York, 
Lake Erie and Western railroads; but it should be borne in mind that the classes 
of freight transported over the two roads are different, the Erie for instance 
carrying a much larger proportion of coal, and that the accounts are kept in a 
different manner, so that the statistics shown in the following tables are of no 
value as a comparison between the two roads, but only between different periods 
on the same road: 



New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. 

New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad. 

1855- 

i860. 

1865 

1870. 

1875. 

1881. 

1855. 

i860. 

1865. 

187O. 

1875 

1881. 

Charge, - 
Cost, - 
Net, 

.03270 

.01341 

.OI929 

.02065 

•01343 

.07222 

.03451 

.02538 

.0913 

.01853 

.OII63 

.0710 

.01275 

.0901 

■0374 

.0783 

.0563 

.0220 

.02371 

•OII 55 

.01216 

.01814 

•OIOOI 

.00813 

.02761 

.01986 

.00775 

■01333 

.00975 

.00358 

.01209 

.00958 

.00251 

.00805 

.OO529 

.00276 


It will be observed that, as late as 1875, the cost to the companies was 
greater than their charges in 1881 to the forwarding public. At the rate of 1855 
it would then have cost $31.39 to move a ton of freight from Chicago to New 
York, while at the rate of 1881 the cost was only $7.51. From 1855 to 1881 the 
increase in services performed, consequent upon the increase of business, was two 
thousand two hundred per cent, while the increase of freight earnings was only four 
hundred and eighty per cent, the reduction in the cost of movement being consider- 




































RAILROAD COMMISSIONER 






RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


559 


ably more than one-half, and the reduction in net earnings per ton per mile a little 
more than one-ninth. 

The following table exhibits the decrease in the cost of transportation, by rail 
and water, since 1869, the columns giving the cost by railroad stating the cost per 
ton per mile, and the columns relative to the water route stating the cost per bushel: 


YEAR. 

Railroads. 

Lake from Chicago to 
Buffalo. 

Canal from Buffalo to 
New York, 

Tolls from Buffalo to 
tide-water. 

Central. 

Erie. 

Wheat. 

Corn. 

Wheat. 

Corn. 

Wheat. 

Corn. 

1S69, ------ 

.02387 

.01538 

.0681 

.0627 

.1631 

.1386 

.0621 

.0483 

1870,. 

.01853 

•01333 

.0588 

•0543 

.1162 

• 1035 

.0310 

.0290 

1871,. 

.01649 

•01433 

.0762 

.0706 

. 1292 

• 1154 

•0310 

.0290 

1872,. 

.0x592 

.0x526 

.1115 

• 1030 

• X310 

• 1139 

•0310 

.0290 

IS73,. 

•01573 

.01454 

.0762 

.0720 

.1x57 

. 1028 

•0310 

.0290 

1874.. 

.01462 

.01311 

•0403 

•0367 

. IOII 

.0911 

.0310 

.0290 

1875. . 

.01275 

.01209 

.0342 

.0308 

.oSor 

.0723 

.0207 

•0193 

1876, ----- 

.01051 

.OIO98 

•0311 

.0260 

.0672 

.0609 

.0207 

.0193 

1S77, . 

.01014 

•00955 

•0357 

-0323 

•0739 

.0638 

„ .0103 

.0096 

1878,. 

•00943 

•00973 

•0317 

.027S 

•0599 

.0526 

• 0103 

.0096 

1879.. 

.00796 

.00780 

.0472 

.0428- 

.0696 

•0615 

.0103 

0096 

1880,. 

.00879 

.00836 

.0564 

•0515 

.0658 

.0601 

.0103 

.0096 

1881,. 

.00783 

.00805 

•0349 

.0292 

.0488 

•0437 

.0103 

.0096 


These figures do not include the elevator charges for canal freights at Buffalo. 

The reduction in the average charge for transporting wheat from Chicago to 
New York, by lake and canal, during the years 1878, 1879 and 1880, as compared 
with the average charge during the years 1870, 1871 and 1872 amounted to nine 
and eight-tenths cents per bushel, and the reduction by rail amounted to fourteen 
and four-tenths cents per bushel, the average reduction being about thirteen cents 
per bushel of sixty pounds. This was equivalent to eleven and seven-tenths per 
cent of the export price of wheat during the year 1881, and to twenty-three and 
fifty-five one-hundredths per cent of the export price of corn during the same year. 

The following table will show the reduction in the local tariffs on grain, per 
hundred pounds, between the points named in this State, over the New York 
Central and Hudson River railroad: 



1873. 

1878. 

1882. 

From Schenectady to New York,. 

.18 

. II 

. IO 

From Utica to New York, - -- --. 

.26 

. 12 

. I I 

From Rome to New York, - -- -- -- -- -- 

•27 

. 12 

.11 

From SjTacuse to New York, - -- -- -- -- - 

.29 

• 13 

.11 

From Auburn to New York,. 

•31 

.14 

.125 

From Rochester to New York, - -- -- -- -- - 

• 325 

•15 

•13 

From Buffalo to New York, - -- --. 

•35 

■17 

•15 


Through and local rates on west-bound freights were correspondingly reduced. 
Similar reductions have occurred on the New York, Lake Erie and Western 
railroad. 










































5 60 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


The following table will show the increase in business over the two great trunk 


railroad lines from 1854 to 1881 : 



New York Central and Hudson 

River Railroad. 

New York, 

Lake Erie and Western Railroad. 


*854 

1881. 

Increase. 

1854. 

1881. 

Increase. 

Freight: 





11,086,823 


tons moved, 

549.305 

II , 59 r >379 

11,041,574 

743,250 

10 , 343,573 

earnings, 

$2,943,966 

$20,736,750 

$17,792,784 

$ 3 , 659,570 

$15,979,577 

$12,320,007 

expenses, 

1,300,179 

14,913,214 

13 , 613,035 

1,83s ,353 

10,506,264 

8,667,911 

net proceeds, - 

1.643,787 

5,823,536 

4 , 179,749 

1,821,217 

5,473,313 

3,652,006 

Tonnage, per ton per mile, 

99,309,600 

2,646,814,098 

2 , 547 , 504,492 

130,808,034 

1,984.394.855 

1,887,697,160 

earnings, 

•02954 

.00783 

decrease .02171 

.02576 

.00S05 

decrease .01771 

expenses, 

.01309 

.00563 

decrease .01744 

.01406 

.00529 

decrease .00877 

net earnings, 

.01645 

.00220 

decrease .01425 

.01170 

.00276 

decrease . 00S94 

Passenger: 






$2,297,SS8 

earnings. 

$4,3S8,S20 

$6, 95 ^ >038 

$2,569,21s 

$ 1 , 743,379 

$4,041,267 

expenses, - 

3,086,680 

4.551,572 

1,464,892 

903,862 

2,749,966 

1,846,104 

net proceeds, - 

1,302,140 

2,406,466 

1,104,326 

839 517 

1,291,301 

451,784 

Miscellaneous earnings, - 

339,534 

1,587,744 

1,248,210 

- 

694,761 

694,761 

Gross earnings, - 

7,672,320 

29,322,532 

21,650,212 

5 . 359,958 

20,715,605 

15,365,647 

Gross expenses, 

4,386,859 

19,464,786 

15,077,927 

2,742,215 

13,256,230 

10,514,015 

Net earnings, 

3,285,461 

9,857.746 

6,572,285 

2,617.743 

7,459,375 

4,841,632 

Stock and funded debt, - 

46,778,863 

132, 9 OI >333 

86,122,470 

35 , 569 . 7 h 

151,740,966 

116,171,255 


The capital stock and indebtedness of the companies have been largely increased, 
either for improvements to the permanent way paid for out of their earnings, or to 
obtain the means to make such improvements and for other purposes. Improvements 
to the permanent way include the relaying of tracks and the purchase of valuable 
properties. In this way the companies have obtained facilities for transporting the 
enormously increased freight tonnage demanding outlets to the sea-board, and at the 
same time reduced the relative cost of such transportation to a remarkable degree ; 
the decrease on the Central being three times the present average cost of transpor¬ 
tation, and on the Erie more than twice the present cost. 

The reduction in the average cost of transportation and the increase in the 
aggregate amount of business is largely due to the desire of the companies to 
afford every possible aid to the producers of the West in competing in the markets of 
Europe, and to enable the manufacturers of New York to place their goods in 
Western towns and cities on equal terms with Western manufacturers. In pursu¬ 
ance of this policy, grain, flour, oil and other commodities are transported long 
distances at very low prices, and special rates are arranged in the interest of manu¬ 
facturers. The railroad systems of this State, therefore, sum up in this: The roads 
radiating from Pennsylvania in every direction bring to manufacturers the coal indis¬ 
pensable in the conduct of their business, and the great through routes take the 
goods thus manufactured to Western markets, returning with Western produce for 
the East and Europe. Under this policy manufacturing has rapidly increased in this 
State. Pennsylvania has prospered, and the West become great , but the discrim¬ 
inating rates, which are essential characteristics, have led to complaints on the part 
of some, who feel that discriminations in favor of others involve discriminations 

































RAILROAD COMMISSIONER. 



RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


561 


against them, notwithstanding the great reduction in the average charges of trans¬ 
portation, and as a consequence of these complaints a radical change has been 
inaugurated in the method of State supervision of railroads. 

On the 28th of February, 1879, a resolution was adopted in the Assembly 
providing for the appointment of a special committee to investigate the manage¬ 
ment of railroads, and the following gentlemen were accordingly so appointed : 
Alonzo B. Hepburn, Henry L. Duguid, James Low, William L. Noyes, James 
W. Wadsworth, Charles S. Baker, James W. Husted, George L. Terry. This 
committee, with the exception of the two last named, submitted a report on the 
22d of January, 1880, having meantime examined witnesses in many localities in 
the State, in which they recommended the passage of several measures appended to 
the report, including a bill providing for the appointment of a railroad commission. 
Messrs. Husted and Terry, while agreeing generally with the statements of fact con¬ 
tained in the report, dissented from so much thereof as related to the proposed 
commission. Several acts were passed, but the commission bill failed to become a 
law. The subject was referred to by Governor Cornell in his annual message to the 
Legislature of 1881, but the proposition again failed. In 1882, however, a bill 
providing for the appointment of a commission was introduced by Hon. Charles S. 
Baker, and became a law. This act provided for the appointment by the Governor, 
by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, within ten days after the 3d of 
January, 1883, of three Railroad Commissioners, one to be selected from each of 
the two leading parties, one of whom shall be experienced in railroad business, and 
one “ upon the recommendation of the Presidents and Executive Committees, or a 
majority of such, of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, the New 
York Board of Trade and Transportation, and the National Anti-Monopoly League 
of New York, as said organization now exists, or any two of such organizations 
so represented, in case of disagreement.” It was further provided that said Board 
of Railroad Commissioners shall have the general supervision of all railroads and 
railways, with the power to investigate their management, and to inquire into the 
causes of all accidents. Violations of law are to be reported to the Attorney-General 
in order that he may take such proceedings therein as may be necessary for the pro¬ 
tection of the public interests. The Commission was also given the power to notify 
any railroad corporation to make repairs, additions to rolling stock and stations or 
station-houses, to provide additional terminal facilities, make changes in the rates 
for transporting freight or passengers, or in the mode of operating the road or 
conducting its business, as they may deem reasonable and expedient in order to 
promote the security, convenience and accommodation of the public ; and if, after 
having had opportunity for a full hearing thereon, the corporation shall refuse or 
neglect to make such repairs, improvements and changes within a reasonable time, and 

7 1 


562 


RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. 


shall not satisfy the Board that no action is required to be taken by it, the Commis¬ 
sioners shall report the facts to the Attorney-General for his action, and also to the 
Legislature. Corporations are also required to furnish the Commissioners with any 
desired information, and to report to them annually. The salary of the Commis¬ 
sioners was fixed at $8,000, and of the Chief Clerk or Secretary at $3,000; and 
the full term of office at five years, the first three serving, respectively, three, four 
and five years. 

The following table embraces the statistics of the railroads in actual operation 
in the State during the year 1881 : 


RAILROADS. 

Capital Account. 

Revenue Account. 

Length of line, ... 5,981.27 
Sidings, etc., ... 4,429.11 

Steel rail, .... 4,567.12 

Average road worked, - 6,130.58 

Engines, .... 2,121 

Freight cars, ... 58,632 

Pass, and baggage cars, - 2,854 

Capital stock, - - $358,486,795 

Funded debt, - - 229,628,481 

Other liabilities, - - 14,608,520 

Gross earnings, - - $80,452,327 

Working expenses, - 51,566,936 

Net earnings, ... $28,885,391 

Total capital, - - $602,723,796 

Interest on bonds, - $12,559,238 

Dividends on stocks, - 11,142,773 

Cost of toad and ctjuip* - 

ment, .... 559,921,240 


In 1869 there were only three thousand six hundred and fifty-eight miles of 
railroad in this State. On the 1st of January, 1882, there were six thousand two 
hundred and seventy-nine miles, or more than the entire mileage of New England, 
and exceeded only by the mileage in the States of Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. 

The railroad mileage in the United States has increased from fifty-two thousand 
nine hundred and fourteen in 1870 to one hundred and four thousand eight hun¬ 
dred and thirteen miles in 1881 ; and it is estimated in Poor’s Manual of Rail¬ 
roads that the railroads of the country in 1881 carried not less than three hun¬ 
dred and fifty million tons of freight valued at $12,000,000,000. The gross earnings 
were $725,325,119; the current expenses, $449,565,071; net earnings, $276,654,119; 
interest paid, $128,887,002 ; dividends, $93,344,200. There were nine thousand 
three hundred and fifty-eight miles of new road built, the largest number of miles 
in any year, at a cost of $233,750,000, and in addition $175,000,000 were expended 
in improvements on old roads and upon lines in progress. The total amount 
expended in the construction of new lines and in operating old ones was over 
$750,000,000, by far the greater part being paid in wages. The number of 
persons employed in construction is estimated at four hundred thousand, and in 
operating at one million two hundred thousand, or one thirty-second part of the 
whole population of the country. If we add to this estimate of Mr. Poor, the num¬ 
ber of persons supported by this vast army of railroad employees, which cannot be 
less than four millions, including in the aggregate all directly depending upon rail¬ 
roads for business, some conception may be formed of the vast magnitude of the 
railroad interests of the United States, and, relatively, of the State of New York. 

















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BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


By DANIEL MANNING. 


The Early History of Banking. 

^JfHE advancement of civilization may be measured by progress in the standards 
of value in the exchange of articles of use or ornament, from the mediums 
adopted by the rudest peoples in trade or barter to the currencies of our own 
day. The Indians who inhabited our own State, when first visited by Europeans, 
gave evidence of considerable degree of civilization; the Iroquois particularly, for 
they were cultivators of the soil, were a well-organized confederacy, and made 
their power felt far to the South and West, even to the Mississippi. But society 
was rude and simple, and needed only the simplest representative of value. So 
we find them making the shells of testaceous fishes into small cylinders, termed 
Wampum (from Wampi , white), to be used as currency; and for some time it was 
thus used between Indians and Europeans, and its manufacture was carried on 
extensively upon Long Island. Its circulation, however, was deprecated, and in 
Massachusetts it was finally prohibited. The same Colony, in 1652, established a 
mint for the manufacture of small coin; and in 1739-40, an institution termed 
the Land Bank was established, but it was soon dissolved by act of Parliament. 

During the long war between Queen Anne and King Louis, the Colony of 
New York became greatly excited over a new project for the invasion of Canada; 
and, in order to meet the anticipated expense, the treasury being empty, there 
were put in circulation the first bills of credit ever issued by New York. The 
project, however, was abandoned. Subsequently, on several occasions, for the 
purpose of carrying on the French and Indian War, the Colony issued additional 
bills of credit, which became part of its circulating medium ; but banks were 
unknown in this country until after the Revolution. 

There were several reasons for the absence of banks in the Colonies, and 
particularly in the Colony of New York. The first of these reasons concerns the 

[563] 


564 


BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


relations banks held to governments; the second, their relations to their stock¬ 
holders ; and the third, their relations to the people. 

First, as to the relations of banks to governments: The term “ bank ” is 
derived from banco , a bench ; benches having been formerly erected in market 
places for the exchange of money. This business was carried on, without regu¬ 
lation by government, exciting the cupidity of rulers and encountering the hostility 
of the people, whenever its managers displayed their wealth before the former, 
or were oppressive in their relations to those dealing with them. It is said that 
the first bank was established in Italy in 808, by certain Jews of Lombardy, who 
then associated themselves together for the purpose of transacting the business 
of exchange. The Bank of Venice, however, was the first institution of the kind 
in Europe. It was organized in 1171, for the purpose of affording the Govern¬ 
ment the means to conduct the Wars of the Crusades. The Bank of Genoa, 
projected in 1345, went into full operation in 1407. The celebrated Bank of 
Amsterdam was founded in 1609, in order to give stable value to bills of exchange 
drawn upon that commercial center, whose merchants were then doing business all 
over the world. The Banks of Venice, Genoa, and Amsterdam were successively 
plundered by the armies of France. In 1619, the Bank of Hamburg was estab¬ 
lished. The Bank of England was sanctioned by act of Parliament April 25, 
1694, and was organized for the purpose of loaning the Government the moneys 
it needed to carry on the war with France, at a reasonable rate of interest, 
receiving in addition valuable franchises. The earlier banks were simply banks of 
deposit and safe-keeping; the moneys were not subject to draft, but could be trans¬ 
ferred on the books of the banks. Bills of exchange, and then drafts. subse¬ 
quently came into use, followed by notes of issue; and banks received peculiar 
favors and enjoyed profitable monopolies, in return for aid afforded the govern¬ 
ments which protected them. The coinage of money being an attribute of 
sovereignty, the business of banking, or of issuing or receiving and loaning money, 
no longer a mere matter of exchange in the market-place, came under the regu¬ 
lation of governments disposed to restrict its advantages to favorites. Under such 
conditions, with banks so largely the fiscal agents of governments, they were not 
likely to be regarded with favor by colonists engaged in continuous struggles to 
secure recognition of their rights from the same governments. 

Second, as to the relations of banks to their stockholders: In their relations 
to the business community, banks were originally regarded as the depositories of 
surplus coin, accumulated in these institutions, by stockholders and depositors, for 
the purpose of being loaned on short-time paper, with ample security; depositors 
being secured by a full paid-up capital in coin. Capitalists, however, were then 
almost universally aristocrats and supporters of the Government; while the farmers 




PRESIDENT OF THE SECOND NATIONAL BANK, OSWEGO. 











PRESIDENT OF THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK, NEW YORK CITY. 




BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


565 


and traders of the Colony were constantly being the more strongly cemented 
together, by the necessity of resisting the oppressions of the Government. Even 
if the Government had been disposed to sanction the organization of a bank, 
therefore, and there had been sufficient surplus wealth for its establishment, it is 
not likely that the stock would have been taken, or that money to any extent 
would have been deposited therein. 

Third, as to the relations of banks to the people, or to the portion of the 
community not likely to have business relations with them, even if they had 
existed: There was intense opposition in New York, among this class, to the 
incorporation of moneyed institutions, which existed even at the beginning of the 
present century, and was very powerful. The people of the Commonwealth were 
in all things thoroughly democratic, and inveterately hostile to all forms of aris¬ 
tocracy ; and as the true principles of bank organization had not yet been put 

to the practical test, they were opposed to banks as to all other forms of con¬ 

centrated power. 

The necessity for properly organized banks and a sound currency, however, 
became apparent during the Revolution; and after a time they were regarded by 
all as indispensable; but, nevertheless, as dangerous, though unavoidable, evils, to 
be limited in number as well as restricted in power. The failure of the Conti¬ 
nental currency strengthened the hands of those who believed in coin only as a 
circulating medium ; while the fact that there was not enough coin in the country 
to meet the demands of business, gave force to the arguments of those who 

favored a paper currency. So, also, while bank failures and bank oppressions in 
Europe sustained the popular feeling against banks, the growing needs of the 
increasing business of the country demonstrated the necessity for the organization 
of banking institutions. 


First Specie Banks in New York, 

Banks are divided into two great classes: banks of deposit and banks of 
issue. Banks of deposit are banks for the custody and employment of money 
intrusted to them by their depositors; and they transact all that is properly included 
in the business of banking. They not only provide convenient places of deposit, 
and constitute a strong support of government, as originally intended ; but they 
provide a machinery for making large payments without the actual conveyance of 
coin or other currency from place to place. This machinery consists of checks 
or orders upon the bank by depositors to pay money to other parties; of drafts, 
or orders for payment from one bank to another bank; and of bills of exchange, 


5 66 


BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


or orders payable to bearer, issued by one person to another in settlement of 
accounts, payable at a future period, and bearing interest, and having the indorse¬ 
ment of each successive holder, and when accepted by a bank becoming of great 
convenience in the transaction of business with foreign countries as well as with 
inland communities. Banks also relieve the merchants of the trouble of presenting 
due bills and drafts for payment; give him credit and standing in the commercial 
world; and enable him to become reliably informed as to the financial standing 
of those with whom he transacts business. 

Banks of issue, besides employing or issuing the moneys of depositors, issue 
their own notes, payable on demand. It has been demonstrated by experience 
that those notes, if they are to possess the full purchasing power of their face 
value, must be made payable in coin, for otherwise they will not represent full 
value; their real value depending entirely upon the degree of confidence existing 
in such redemption. While coin is precisely adapted to the purposes of a standard 
of value, it is not so convenient or desirable for the purposes of currency as 
paper so adjusted as to be the exact equivalent of the coin it represents. It is, 
therefore, as necessary that the volumes of the paper currency should be regulated 
by some uniform standard, as that coin should be of uniform print and standard 
weight. 

The art of banking is essentially a progressive science, not to be readily 
acquired by casual observation or mere theory, but based upon thoughtful study 
of fundamental principles, laboriously applied in all the diversified details of its 
practical operations; a system of administration, tested by wide experience, based 
upon sound principles in the science of political economy. The common opera¬ 
tions of banking are: the receiving of deposits for safe-keeping, and the loaning 
of their floating balance; the borrowing of large sums of money at low rates of 

interest on long time, and their loaning in small sums at ordinary rates on short 

time; the paying of interest upon deposits, and investing the average balance; 
dealing in bills of exchange; loaning capital; circulating currency. These opera¬ 
tions, however, are not necessarily all conducted by any one bank; and the stability 
of each bank is to be best secured by one means rather than another, according 
to its methods of business. 

The first bank organized in the United States was established in Philadelphia 
as a national necessity, to afford financial assistance to the Government in the 
War for Independence. On the . 30th of April, 1781, Alexander Hamilton sug¬ 
gested a National Bank; and on the 17th of May it was recommended to the 

Continental Congress by Robert Morris, who three days before had been appointed 
Superintendent of Finance, the capital to consist of $400,000 in coin, its notes to 
form the currency of the country and to be receivable for taxes and duties by 




PRESIDENT OF THE FLOUR CITY NATIONAL BANK, ROCHESTER. 






























































PRESIDENT OF THE THIRD NATIONAL BANK, NEW YORK CITY. 




BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


567 


every State and by the United States; but inasmuch as Congress had not the 
power to incorporate such an institution, it was suggested that application be made 
to the States for permission to issue such charter. On the 26th of May, without 
waiting to hear from the States, Congress resolved to incorporate the institution 
as soon as the capital was subscribed for and officers chosen, the resolution being 
carried by the vote of New Hampshire, New Jersey and five Southern States, 
Madison alone voting in the negative for Virginia, Pennsylvania dividing, and 
Massachusetts voting against the resolution. On the 31st of December, 1781, the 
Bank of North America, as it was called, was incorporated, and in January, 1782, 
Morris, without authority, subscribed $254,000 to the stock, being all the money 
remaining in the treasury of a remittance of nearly $500,000 from the King of 
France. In March, 1782, the Legislature of Massachusetts incorporated the bank; 
the same month Pennsylvania passed an act of recognition, following it on the 
1st of April with an act of incorporation; and on the 10th of April the Legis¬ 
lature of New York passed an act providing that no other bank than the Bank 
of North America should be allowed to transact the business of banking in this 
State, but attaching the proviso “that nothing in this act contained shall be con¬ 
strued to imply any right or power in the United States in Congress assembled 
to create bodies politic, or grant letters of incorporation in any case whatsoever.” 
In 1785, Pennsylvania repealed its act of incorporation, and in 1786 Delaware gave 
a charter to the Bank of North America. Bancroft, in his “History of the For¬ 
mation of the Constitution of the United States of America” — page thirty-two — 
referring to the action of the Continental Congress and the Bank of North 
America, says that, “ in return it did very little, and could do very little, for the 
United States;” and from another reference to the institution — page one hundred 
and sixty-five — we learn why it “could do very little.” He says: “The Bank 
of North America, necessarily of little advantage to the United States, proved 
highly remunerative to its stockholders; the bankruptcy of the Nation could have 
been prevented only by the Nation itself.” 

The second bank actually incorporated in the United States, was the Bank of 
Massachusetts, located in Boston, the charter for which was granted February 7, 1784, 
and on the 5th of July it commenced business. The second institution to begin the 
transaction of the business of banking, however, was the Bank of New York, which 
commenced business June 9, 1784, without a charter, its application therefor having 
been denied by the Legislature. The first President of the bank was the patriot, 
General Alexander McDougall. Referring again to Bancroft’s Constitutional His¬ 
tory— page two hundred and thirty-two — we learn that “New York successfully 
extricated itself from the confusion of Continental and State paper money;” but 
in 1786 its Legislature took a step which meets with his criticism, as it did with 


5 68 


BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


the criticisms of Chancellor Livingston and Justices Hobart and Morris, of the 
Council of Revision. This step was the emission of ^200,000 in bills of credit, 
which were made a legal tender in all suits, and which were receivable for duties, 
the customs-revenue being then imposed and collected under authority of the States. 
Judged from the standpoint of to-day, and without reference to the situation, this 
action is open to the severest criticism. But such judgment is in itself unjust. 
The statesmen of New York were originally a unit in favor of an efficient form 
of Union, and the Legislature had voted the customs-revenue to the General 
Government. A chancre had come over the minds of some of the ablest leaders 

O 

in the State, however, arising partly from State pride, undoubtedly, but also from 
distrust of results if the control of affairs was entirely in the hands of the Con¬ 
tinental Congress. The financial unsoundness, which it subsequently became appa¬ 
rent, was very wide-spread, had no foothold in New York; and it was the highest 

wisdom to retain all power in the State, using it in the interests of the Union, 

until such time as an adjustment could be reached which should secure not only 
proper limitations upon power, but the recognition of sound principles of admin¬ 
istration, particularly in reference to every thing related to finance; for upon it 
depended the prosperity of the people. When the time came, New York gave 
its assent to a Constitution which conferred upon the United States the power 
“to levy and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises;” provided that “no State 
shall, without the consent of this Congress, levy any imposts or duties on imports 
or exports,” and that “ no State shall coin money, emit bills of credit, make any 
thing but gold and silver a tender in payment of debts;” and the State used 
its influence so effectually as to secure important amendments, guarding the Con¬ 
stitution against constructions conferring upon the United States doubtful powers, 
and thereby it more effectually rendered it an efficient instrument for the protec¬ 
tion of the just rights of the States and the individual liberties of the People. 

Three more banks were next incorporated, outside the limits of this State; 
in 1790, the Bank of Maryland, and in 1791 the Providence Bank and the Bank 
of the United States. The same year, March 21, 1791, the Legislature of the 
State of New York passed an act incorporating the Bank of New York, drawn 
by Alexander Hamilton, who was a member of the Board of Directors. Under 
this charter, to which subsequent charters were substantially conformed, the business 
transacted by the bank was confined to the place named in the act, and the 
incorporation could hold no real estate except that occupied by the bank and 
such as was taken by it as security or in satisfaction for indebtedness. Capital 
employed in the business of banking was to be a fixed and definite sum, and 
debts due could not exceed three times the amount of the capital, and in addition 
an amount equal to the sums deposited in the vaults In 1792, the Bank of 




PRESIDENT OF THE TRADERS’ NATIONAL BANK, ROCHESTER. 





















PRESIDENT OF THE OLD NATIONAL BANK, WHITEHALL. 







BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


5 6 9 


Albany, and in 1793, the Bank of Columbia were incorporated; and in 1794, there 
were but seventeen banks doing business in the entire country, including the Bank 
of the United States. 

The next bank established in this State was also instituted in an irregular 
manner. On the 2d of April, 1799, an act was passed by the Legislature incor¬ 
porating the Manhattan Company, for the purpose of supplying the city of New 
York with pure and wholesome water; and by its terms the company was author¬ 
ized to employ its surplus capital “in the purchasing of public or other stock, or 
in any other moneyed transactions or operations not inconsistent with the Consti¬ 
tution and laws of this State, or of the United States.” Under this vague charter, 
which was unlimited as to duration, the Bank of the Manhattan Company was 
organized. Included in its Board of Directors were John Broome, who had been 
a member of the Committee of One Hundred in the city of New York in. the 
beginning of the Revolution, and was afterward Member of Assembly and State 
Senator; Brockholst Livingston, Member of Assembly, and afterward Justice of the 
Supreme Court of the State of New York and of the United States; and Aaron 
Burr, who subsequently became Vice-President of the United States. After an 
existence of eighty-four years, this bank is still in sound financial condition, doing an 
extensive business, with $2,050,000 capital. William H. Smith is now its President. 

The charter of the Manhattan Company was, of course, obtained through polit¬ 
ical influence; for bank charters were for many years granted as matter of partisan 
favor; and all questions with regard to them were acted upon from political con¬ 
siderations rather than the necessities of business. In 1801, a-charter was granted 
to the Farmers’ Bank, Lansingburgh, and in 1803 the New York State Bank, Albany, 
and the Albany Merchants’ Company were incorporated. The same year the Mer¬ 
chants’ Bank of New York began business, but it was not until 1805 that it 
secured a charter. While there were no restrictions upon banking, only seven 
banks had been incorporated prior to 1804; but in that year a restricting act was 
passed, which secured to the chartered institutions, in addition to the privileges 
conferred by their acts of incorporation, a monopoly of the business of banking. 
In 1807 the Mohawk Bank, Schenectady, and in 1808 the Hudson Bank were 
incorporated. 

The Legislature of New York had now granted but ten bank charters, and 
the institutions organized under them were all Specie Banks. In New England, 
on the other hand, forty-two banks had been organized, and they so crowded their 
circulation upon the community, even to the issuing of fractions of a dollar, that 
in 1808—9, there occurred a series of disastrous failures. March 4, 18r 1, the charter 
of the United States Bank expired; and its renewal being refused, efforts were 
made to secure from the Legislature of the State of New York an act incor- 

72 


570 


BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


porating as its real successor the Bank of America, with a capital of $6,000,000, 
the projectors offering a large bonus to the State for the charter, agreeing to 
give $400,000 unconditionally, and $100,000 in ten years, and $100,000 in twenty 
years, if in the mean time no other banks were incorporated, nor further increase of 
banking capital authorized. Reports of corrupt efforts to pass the charter were 
circulated to such an extent that Governor Tompkins prorogued the Legislature 
March 27, 1812, a power which, although sanctioned by the Constitution, had never 
been exercised; and the popular excitement consequent upon this act of prorogation 

was so intense that the power was never again used. The Legislature reassembled 

in May, and passed the act incorporating the Bank of America. In June, however, 
war was declared against Great Britain by the General Government, followed by 
financial troubles and commercial disasters, and a subsequent Legislature accordingly 
reduced the capital stock of the bank to $2,000,000, and its bonus to $100,000. 

In the absence of a United States Bank, during the war, the sole financial 

reliance of the - " Federal and State Governments was upon the banks organized 
under State laws, and particularly upon the banks in the city and State of New 

York. In the acts granting or extending charters to leading banks in this State, 

the Legislature had reserved the right to borrow money at five and six per cent 

interest. In fune, 1813, Congress levied a direct tax upon the respective States, 
for the purpose of obtaining the means to carry on the war with Great Britain, 
allowing a deduction of fifteen per cent if paid before February 10, and of ten 
per cent if paid before May 1, 1814. The quota of New York was $430,041.62. 
The War Governor of New York, Daniel D. Tompkins, thought it not only 
patriotic but prudent on the part of the State to avail itself of its right to borrow 

money from the banks at a moderate rate of interest, to advance it for the benefit 

and accommodation of its citizens in the payment of the direct tax, and to appro¬ 
priate and pledge for its repayment the securities taken for former loans by the 
State; thus reducing the burdens upon the people, and affording aid to the General 
Government most speedily and effectively. The Governor, in his speech to the 
Legislature at the beginning of the session of 1814, accordingly recommended that 
this course be pursued, and the Senate promptly passed a bill in compliance with 
the recommendation. The Assembly, however, was under the control of a faction 
opposed to the war, and on the nth of February the Senate bill was defeated, 
and an address to the Governor was adopted, expressing strong sympathy with 
Great Britain and bitter hostility to the Federal and State administrations, in the 
course of which the following appears: “ The House of Assembly observe what 
your Excellency says in relation to the direct tax, laid by the Congress of the 
United States, but they are by no means convinced, by the reasonings contained 
in your Excellency’s speech, that at a time when your Excellency is recommending 




PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN EXCHANGE NATIONAL BANK, NEW YORK CITY. 












✓ 


PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL BANK OF THE REPUBLIC. NEW YORK CITY. 










BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


57i 


us to increase our own burdens by providing for our own defense, the State of 
New York should deprive herself of any of her resources by giving them to 
the General Government.” This unwise and unpatriotic action so aroused and 
incensed the people, that at the election in April an Assembly was chosen in 
sympathy with the administration, which met in special session in September, pur¬ 
suant to call by the Governor, and organized by electing as Speaker Samuel 
Young, of Saratoga, the leader of the administrative Members in the preceding 
Assembly. 

The banks of New York put forth every exertion to aid the Government, 
and carry on the business of the country; but while they succeeded in these most 
important purposes they were unable to maintain specie payments, and accordingly, 
in September, 1814, they suspended — the suspension being general throughout the 
United States, except in New England. A public meeting of merchants and others 
interested was held in the city of New York, at which the suspension of specie 
payments by the banks was sustained. The causes of suspension were various, 
and no doubt justified the act. The blockade of the northern frontier affected 
disastrously the foreign and coastwise trade, while the capture of Washington and 
the threatened invasion of the British armies demoralized the business of the 
interior. So great was the alarm that the banks of Philadelphia sent their specie 
to Lancaster for security, and the credit of the Federal Government was seriously 
impaired. The creditor banks of the Eastern States made heavy drafts for specie 
on the banks in the remaining States in the Union, while the banks in the Middle 
States made common cause with the banks in the South and West, and with the 
Government, loaning the latter nearly $38,000,000 out of $41,000,000 borrowed by 
it, paying in about the same proportion $11,000,000 of treasury notes and tem¬ 
porary loans of the Government, and repaying $7,000,000 of the capital stock of 
the old United States Bank belonging to foreigners. Recovery from this exhaustion 
was necessary before there could be a resumption of specie payments. Prices, 
which had been very high, began to decline immediately upon the restoration of 
peace in 1815 ; but as most of the $45,000,000 of currency in circulation was 
issued by the banks in the Middle States, and there was only $15,500,000 in specie 
in the country, an immediate attempt to resume would have resulted in their irre¬ 
trievable ruin. 

In 1815, the number of banks in the State had increased to twenty-six, and 
their combined capital to $18,946,818; and it was estimated that in the entire 
country there were two hundred and eight banks, having an aggregate capital of 
$82,260,000, and a circulation variously computed at from $110,000,000 down to 
$44,700,000 — the latter figure being given on very high authority. The following 
year, 1816, the same financier estimated that the circulation was $66,500,000. On 


572 


BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


the ioth of April in that year, President Madison signed the bill for the incor¬ 
poration of the Second Bank of the United States, and on the 7th of January, 
1817, it began business. The same month a meeting of delegates from the banks 
of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Virginia was held in Philadelphia, at 
which it was resolved to resume specie payments. On the 21st of February specie 
payments were accordingly resumed, and the Bank of the United States, at an 
expense of $500,000, imported $7,000,000 in aid of resumption. The resumption 
of specie payments was followed in 1818 by an attempt on the part of the Bank 
of the United States and the State banks to restrict their issues and to compel 
the payment of loans, resulting in a pressure, beginning in October, 1818, and 
continuing through the year 1819, causing great distress throughout the country. 
In 1820, bank circulation had been reduced to $43,780,000; business emerged from 
all its difficulties, and prosperity was the more substantial because of greater wisdom 
in the management of the banks. 


The Safety-Fund Banking System . 

The Republic now entered upon another era of progress, and New York soon 
learned that banks were an indispensable agent in the conduct of business. They 
not only rendered timely assistance to the Government in the hour of its greatest 
peril, but they gave to it valuable aid in the administration of its finances, and 
by utilizing their currency in the place of coin, left it free to use the latter in 
payment of its foreign indebtedness. They also contributed to the return of this 
coin in payment for the products of the country, the large increase in which, was 
only rendered possible by bringing capital to the aid of industry. They thus 
became a most powerful factor in promoting the prosperity of the people, whose 
wealth is to be measured not by their hoarded gains or undeveloped power, but 
by the amount of their valuable products; and production is only possible by the 
wise combination of capital and energy in the conduct of enterprises, and the devel¬ 
opment of the resources of the country. This, banks secured by furnishing an 
adequate currency at fair rates of interest to reliable men of small means, enabling 
them to carry on business profitable to themselves, and of benefit to the community. 
Thus the merchant was enabled to buy the products of the soil and the manu¬ 
factory ; the tide of immigration set westward in rapidly augmenting volume, and 
workshops sprang up on every hand; farmers pushing into the wilderness and 
building roads after them; the State following in the construction of highways 
and canals, and encouraging other public enterprises. Instead of inactivity, poverty 
and suffering, there were industry, wealth and power, resulting from the invigorating 




PRESIDENT OF THE CHATHAM NATIONAL BANK, NEW YORK CITY. 
















PRESIDENT OF THE BANK OF BUFFALO. 







BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


573 


influence of banks; and this prosperity was the greatest in the State of New 
York, which advanced rapidly to the front rank among Commonwealths, because 
here the system of banking was most solid and secure. 

The eight years from 1820 to 1828, inclusive, were characterized in the main 
by the regular and healthful transaction of business; but in the undue expansion 
of the currency and consequent pressure upon the banks in 1825, there were indi¬ 
cations of a disposition to depart from sound principles of finance, the perils of 
which departure were perhaps more clearly seen by the financiers and statesmen 
of New York than by those of any other State. On the 1st of January, 1829, 
there were forty banks in the State, the charters of thirty-one of which would 
expire within four years, and mainly within two or three years. Of the banks 
whose charters were thus about to expire, the combined capital actually paid in 
amounted to about $15,000,000, and the debts due to them aggregated more than 
$30,000,000; this indebtedness being offset by debts to about the same amount due 
from the banks to the community, including their stockholders. 

The State had been agitated for some time over the question of renewing 
the charters of banks; and the problems involved were certainly of the gravest 
importance. In this crisis, fortunately, Martin Van Buren was elected Governor 

and Enos T. Throop Lieutenant-Governor; and in his message to the Legislature 
in 1829 Governor Van Buren presented an impartial review of the situation. “To 
dispense with banks altogether,” he said, “ is an idea which seems to have 
no advocate; and to make ourselves wholly dependent upon those established 
by Federal authority deserves none.” He then proceeded to consider the ques¬ 
tion of renewing the charters of sound banks, ending with the conclusion that 
“ the pecuniary convulsion that must result from a compulsory closing of these 
extensive concerns would be neither slight in its degree nor transient in its dura¬ 
tion.” Assuming that the Legislature would decide to renew “the charters of 

those banks whose solvency and present capacity to discharge all their duties shall, 
after a rigid and impartial scrutiny, be found free from doubt,” he proceeded to 

consider the conditions upon which the new grants ought to be made. Strongly 

condemning the policy formerly pursued “of requiring the payment of a large 
bonus to the State, or the performance of some specious service, as the price of 
bank charters,” he wisely suggested “ the propriety of making all the conditions 
you prescribe refer exclusively to the safety and stability of the institution; ” and 
he commended a plan which had been submitted to him, by which it was pro¬ 
posed “to make all the banks responsible for any loss the public may sustain by 
the failure of any one or more of them.” With regard to this plan he said: 
“ Most men will, upon the first impression, view it, as I certainly did myself, as 
presenting a rigorous condition. But it is confidently believed by competent judges 





574 


BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


that the form in which it is proposed to enforce the responsibility—being an 
annual and adequate appropriation of a part of their income toward a common 
fund to be placed under the control of the State — the ample supervision over 
the institutions, which it proposes to place under the direction of the contributing 
banks, in conjunction with the authority of the State — the consequent high char¬ 
acter and corresponding circulation it would give to our paper — the expulsion 
from circulation of the doubtful paper which now engrosses it, and the substitu¬ 
tion in its place of that issued by banks in full credit — with other advantages, 
would make the conditions such as would, upon more full consideration, be deemed 
advisable by all concerned.” 

Governor Van Buren resigned on the 12th of March, to accept the position 
of Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President Jackson, and he earnestly sup¬ 
ported the latter in his opposition to the Bank of the United States, as expressed 
in his message to Congress the following December, in these words : “ The charter 
of the Bank of the United States expires in 1836, and its stockholders will most 
probably apply for a renewal of their privileges. Both the constitutionality and the 
expediency of the law creating this bank are well questioned by a large portion 
of our fellow-citizens; and it must be admitted by all that it has failed in the 
great end of establishing a uniform and sound currency.” 

The Legislature of New York took the first step forward in providing such 
a currency; and, however strongly the system it inaugurated may be criticised 
from the standpoint of to-day, it must now be conceded that at that time it con¬ 
stituted a decided advance in the right direction. “ Personal responsibility of the 
stockholders,” which was strongly objected to by the Governor and the Banking 
Committee of the Assembly, on the ground that it tended to place banks under 
the management of irresponsible men, with certain restrictions upon the action of 
Directors contained in the Revised Statutes, then constituted the sole security of 
the community. It is obvious to-day that these safeguards were entirely inadequate 
to the purpose of preserving the currency sound and stable and rendering banks 
safe and secure. 

New York was first among States to realize the perils which were soon to 
environ the business interests of the Republic, and to engulf thousands in irre¬ 
trievable ruin. The most dangerous elements of weakness in banks, lay in the 
temptation to make an unwise use of their strength. So great was the tide of 
immigration, so unlimited was the enterprise of the people, so vast were the 
resources of the country, that on every hand there were importunate demands for 
enlarged banking facilities and an increase of currency. In this State, this demand 
then came from Western New York, which had rapidly advanced in industrial 
wealth, and felt the need of more and stronger banks. The Committee of the 



PRESIDENT OF THE MUTUAL NATIONAL BANK, TROY 












PRESIDENT OF THE SEAMEN’S BANK FOR SAVINGS, NEW YORK CITY 




BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


575 


Assembly, Hon. Alonzo C. Paige, of Schenectady, Chairman, to which the portion 
of the message of the Governor relative to banks was referred, conceding that 
existing bank capital was inadequate, nevertheless addressed itself resolutely to the 
duty of providing securities against the impending financial convulsion. To this 
end, it opposed the policy, then recently suggested, of investing the capital of 
a bank in stocks or in bonds and mortgages, for the reason that “ it would not 
be practicable to convert these securities into coin with the facility which is neces¬ 
sary to a prompt redemption of the paper issued by the bank;” and it favored 
the Safety Fund system, as a method for rendering amply secure the Specie Banks 
of the State. In this view the Legislature concurred, and a law was passed,* 
and approved by acting Governor Throop, inaugurating the first departure from 
the original system of banking. 

The Safety Fund act required each bank to pay to the State Treasurer, 

annually, a sum equal to one-half of one per cent on its capital stock paid in, 
after excepting therefrom such part as was held by the State, such payments to 
be continued until three per cent of such capital stock had been paid in ; the 

Bank Fund thus constituted to be invested by the Comptroller, and to be applied 
by the Commissioners provided for in the act to the payment of the circulation 
and all other debts of any insolvent bank; the income from the fund, after the 
payment of the salaries of the Bank Commissioners, to be paid to the solvent 

banks, in proportion to their contributions thereto. In case the fund became 

reduced below the required three per cent, by the payment of the debts of insol¬ 
vent incorporations, the banks were required to renew their annual contributions, 
until each had paid in the requisite three per cent of its capital stock. Three 
Bank Commissioners were provided for, one to be appointed by the Governor 
and Senate; the banks located in the first three Senatorial districts were to name 
the second, and the banks in the remaining five districts were to name the third 
Commissioner. These Commissioners were directed to examine each bank once 

in four months, and oftener if required by these banks, and were authorized to 

take the necessary proceedings for the appointment of a Receiver, in the case of 
any bank deemed by them to be in an insolvent condition, and in the case of 
all banks suffering an impairment of capital to the extent of one-half of the capital 
stock. 

The Safety Fund system was, therefore, a system of the substitution of the 
responsibility of the banks in place of the personal liability of the stockholders, 

and for the unification of the banks of the State, so far as their responsibility 
to the community was concerned, with the power to protect themselves from 


*Laws of 1829, chapter 94; passed April 2 , 1829. 




5 76 


BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


loss occasioned by imprudent management on the part of any banking institu¬ 
tion. No bank could be established except under special charter granted by the 
Legislature, and thus the criticism that the banks were a monopoly was not only 
not removed, but rendered stronger by this concentration of responsibility and 
union of interests. Certain grave defects in the old system, however, were reme¬ 
died. It is said to have been a common thing to put a bank in operation when 
only a small part of its capital had been actually paid in, through a secret arrange¬ 
ment by which notes of individuals were received and substituted for capital, the 
capital being really furnished by the credit of the bank, which was managed by 
men of no responsibility; and this abuse was rendered impossible by requiring all 

the capital stock to be actually paid in, before proceeding with the transaction of 
any business. Banks had been purchased for purposes of plunder; and this was 
rendered difficult by prohibiting stockholders from voting on hypothecated stock. 
Large loans had been made to favorites upon doubtful security or none at all, 
and this was guarded against by providing for frequent examination. It had been 

the custom of many of the Eastern banks to purchase in the city of New York 

their paper at a discount, but the banks of the State were prohibited from doing 
this by law; and they were also prohibited from declaring dividends while any 

portion of their capital stock was impaired. It was regarded as an abuse of banking 
for banks to actually provide the capital for the conduct of any business, and this 
abuse it was sought to guard against, together with the evil consequences of the 
increase in the number of borrowers and the amounts borrowed, which results 
from an increase in the means of supplying their demands, by restricting the number 
of banks and limiting the circulation to twice the amount of banking capital. The 
fundamental principle of the system, therefore, was to confine banking to its natural 
vocation of promoting the exchanges of the country, and to limit the banks to a 
number barely sufficient to furnish the currency deemed necessary for that purpose, 
conferring upon them powers adequate to sustain this currency at its full value, 

and compelling the banks to provide adequate security against losses by the com¬ 
munity. 

Under this system, it was complained that banks whose dividends were least, 

contributed most to the Bank Fund, and that the limited powers of the Comp¬ 

troller relative to investments, rendered it doubtful if a fair revenue could be derived 
from it. A very serious, if not disastrous, defect consisted in the inefficiency of 
the system as a safeguard against panics arising from extraordinary causes; for it 
looked rather to the eventual security of the community against losses than to 

the prevention of embarrassments occasioned by the vicissitudes of commerce. In 
1831, there came a reaction from previous over-trading with foreign nations, which 
was severely felt in New York city. On the 18th of September, 1833, President 



PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL COMMERCIAL BANK. ALBANY. 














PRESIDENT OF THE ALBANY SAVINGS BANK 





BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


577 


Jackson ordered the removal of the government deposits from the Bank of the 
United States, and the order was carried into effect on the ist of October fol¬ 
lowing ; whereupon the bank entered upon a rapid and extensive reduction of its 
debt, reducing its discounts in four months at the rate of $10,000,000 a year; 
while previously, in a single year, it had extended its circulation more than 
$5,000,000, and its discounts more than $20,000,000. In February, 1834, a panic 
occurred, precipitating a severe pressure upon the banks at a time when the demand 
for coin was increased, by the requirement that customs-duties should be paid in 
specie. In addition, there was over-trading, more or less building of railroads, and 
other public improvements, stimulated by banking facilities and leading to excessive 
bank issues. On the other hand, there was an unusual supply of the precious 
metals; in the account with the commercial world the Republic stood creditor; the 
products of the country were abundant; and there was unusual prosperity in all 

the great branches of natural industry. The banks of this State were made the 

special objects of attack, at home as well as in other States; their credit was 
assailed; appeals were made to the people to demand specie for their paper; and 
it was predicted that the Safety-Fund system would soon crumble into ruins. Con¬ 
fidence was thus destroyed, and there was great pecuniary distress. 

Two years more passed, during which business was unprecedentedly large, active 
and prosperous; means for its transaction were extensive, and the banks were sound, 
healthy and safe. In March, 1837, however, a reaction, soon becoming universal, 
set in; and on the 10th of May specie payments were suspended in the city of 

New York. This was owing in part to an excessive foreign trade. Three 

European houses alone had extended credit to the merchants of this country to 
the enormous amount of nearly $19,000,000. The reaction began in a panic in 
Europe with regard to American credit, which was suddenly checked; large amounts 
of protested bills were returned, creating a threatening demand for specie, and raising 
it to a premium; and at the same time the great staple of the country became 
depressed abroad. As banks are only commercial agents, the suspension of specie 
payments grew inevitably out of their relations to the commercial interests of the 
country, rather than out of any defects in the organization of the banks, although 
such defects existed. Other causes of the panic will be noted below. 


State Supervision. — Free Banking. 

The business of banking, in its relation to the State, had now passed through 
three stages. Prior to 1804, any individual or association of individuals, could 
engage in it, although a few banking institutions enjoyed special privileges. From 

73 


578 


BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


1804 to 1818, incorporated banks possessed a monopoly, subject only to the most 
general restrictions. From 1818 to 1837, these monopolies were held to a strict 
responsibility to all creditors; and were given powers of self-protection which were 
deemed entirely adequate, the State being represented in the system of supervision 
then established, but not controlling it. In 1837, another step forward was taken 
in the passage of an act* conferring the power of appointment of all the Bank 
Commissioners upon the Governor and Senate. The Legislature also, while legal¬ 
izing the suspension of specie payments, sought to guard against its recurrence by 
reducing the amount of circulation which each bank could issue, regulating the 
issue of currency, not by any fixed ratio to capital stock, but by allowing to banks 
having certain specified capital a definite amount of circulation, varying with the 
capital stock of each institution. The years from 1818 to 1838, mark the fourth 
stage. 

The following year another and more important act was passed for the cor¬ 
rection of the more radical evils which were inseparable from the Safety-Fund 

/ 

system as it then existed. These evils grew out of the power of banks to 
employ capital and currency in discounting bills and issuing currency, and the 
joint responsibility of all banks for losses incurred in the management or mis¬ 
management of any other bank. The power of banks created a tendency toward 
excessive issues; their responsibility, in the face of danger, induced rapid curtail¬ 
ment of discounts and issues The effects of too great expansion, followed by 
too severe contraction, were very disastrous, and the power to bring about these 
rapid fluctuations was very dangerous, as was illustrated in the case of the United 
States Bank, and now again with regard to the incorporated banks of this State. 
After the suspension in 1837, the banks of New York led the way in the resump¬ 
tion of specie payments, collecting over $22,000,000 of indebtedness in a short 
space of time, and contracting their issues; but after the renewal of specie pay¬ 
ments by them- in the spring of 1838, they again extended their loans to an 
excessive degree. 

The fifth stage began with the passage of the general banking act on the 
13th of April, 1838. This was designed to preserve and extend the beneficial 
effects of banking, while correcting the evils of the Safety-Fund system. Bank 
charters had been regularly voted as rewards for party services, and many of the 
evils of the existing system were held to be the inevitable outgrowth of the 
monopoly of banking privileges by the incorporated banks. To remedy these evils, 
every individual and association was authorized to engage in the business of bank¬ 
ing; and on depositing with the Comptroller stocks of the United States, or stocks 


* Laws of 1837, chapter 74. 






J P{y) 


PRESIDENT OF THE MANUFACTURERS AND TRADERS BANK, BUFFALO. 














PRESIDENT OF THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK OSWEGO. 



BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


579 


of New York, or stocks of any State which were, or might be made, equal to a five 
per cent stock, or bonds and mortgages to the same amount on improved, pro¬ 
ductive and unincumbered real estate worth double the amount secured by the 
mortgage, over and above all buildings thereon, and bearing an interest thereon 
of not less than six per cent per annum, the Comptroller was required to deliver 
to such individual or association an equal amount of bank notes for circulation, 
duly numbered, registered and signed at his office. Banking associations thus 
organized were placed under the supervision of the Bank Commissioners. 

Under this system, banking associations had no power to loan the part of 
their capital required to be invested in securities and deposited with the Comp¬ 
troller; and their circulation was restricted to a loan of credit upon these securities, 
thus compelling the banks to rely on the payment of notes discounted by them 
in the daily transaction of business; but the basis of the circulation was very 
insecure. While the restriction upon loans was very beneficial, the power to invest 
in all kinds of securities was fatal. States and individuals borrowed extensively, 
and the excitement was so great that banking associations were rapidly formed, 
and all classes of securities deposited with the Comptroller. In 1839, there was 
a second suspension of the banks in the South and West; and this was fol¬ 
lowed during that and the succeeding year, by numerous failures among the free 
banking associations in the State. Indeed, so extended and sweeping was the dis¬ 
aster, that it would have proved fatal to the system, but for the fact that the 
Bank Fund became bankrupt, and the management of the incorporated banks was 
such that the Legislature felt compelled to provide against the evils existing in 
each system, rather than at this time to render either, exclusively, the banking 
system of the State. 

The original Safety-Fund act made no discrimination between depositor and 
bill-holder with reference to the liability of the Bank Fund for losses; but in 
case of the failure of a bank, it required creditors to wait for settlement until 
the assets of the bank had been disposed of, and a final adjustment made, thus 
guarding against sudden and enforced bankruptcy. The experience of the crisis 
through which the business of the country was passing, however, taught financiers 
that it was no part of the function of the State to provide security for depositors, 
any more than it would undertake to secure men risking their money in any other 
business; and that its duty began and ended with rendering the currency sound, 
secure and stable. Bills of discredited banks, however, depreciate under the uncer¬ 
tainties of redemption; and hence the Legislature of 1837 removed the restrictions 
upon settlement, with the intent to facilitate the early redemption of the bills of 
insolvent banks. In October, 1839, when the free banking associations began to 
reveal the worthlessness of their securities, the incorporated banks began another 


580 


BANKING AND CURRENCY, 


curtailment of business, increasing the distress of the community, but saving banking 
institutions and business interests from general shipwreck. A number of banks, 
however, fraudulently issued currency to the extent of hundreds of thousands of 
dollars in excess of the amount they were authorized by law to issue; and the 
law of 1837, apparently so wisely enacted, now worked serious disaster. Brokers 
made extensive loans, secured by deposits of the currency of incorporated banks; 
and the more desperate the condition of the banks the more ready were they to 
make the loans, for they could the sooner reimburse themselves at large profits 
from the securities in the hands of the Comptroller; and in 1841 and 1842, banks 
thus mismanaged became insolvent. The law, as it then existed, enabled the dis¬ 
honest managers of a few banks, after robbing their real stockholders, to convert 
to their own use the contributions of honest banks to the Bank Fund, and to 
accumulate claims against it to such an extent as to cover it with the odium of 
bankruptcy, from which it never escaped. 

The State of New York has from the beginning maintained its credit invio¬ 
late , and, as far as it could, it has enforced upon all incorporations created under 
its authority, scrupulous fulfillment of all obligations. There was no disposition, 
even in this emergency, either on the part of the State or of the incorporated 
banks, to countenance repudiation. By the provisions of chapter 247, Laws of 
1842, every dollar in the Safety Fund was appropriated to the payment of bills 
of insolvent banks, to be redeemed in the order in which injunctions against the 
banks had been issued; and the Comptroller was required to provide the means 
to pay the creditors of insolvent banks the amount paid into the treasury and 
belonging to the Bank Fund, and for this purpose he was authorized to issue 
State stocks. At the time of the passage of the act ten incorporated banks had 

become insolvent, and another subsequently failed. These eleven banks had an 
aggregate capital of $3,150,000; and while their contributions to the Safety Fund 
amounted to only $86,274, there was drawn therefrom to redeem their circulation 

the sum of $1,548,588, and in addition there was drawn the sum of $1,010,375 
in payment of the indebtedness of seven banks for which the fund was liable, 
making a total of $2,558,953 drawn by those banks. The actual contributions 
of the incorporated banks to the Bank Fund, to September 30, 1848, amounted to 
$1,876,063, so that if the fund had been liable only for circulation, it would have 
been ample for the redemption of the bills of every insolvent bank. After the 

passage of the act of 1842 the Safety Fund was security only for the bills of 
banks failing after that date. In theory, the banking laws of the State now 
provided security only for the billholders, and they sought to render it most 

effectual; but as all the contributions which the incorporated banks were required 
to make to the Safety Fund were mortgaged for the repayment of the Bank Fund 




PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL BROADWAY BANK. NEW YORK CITY. 















































PRESIDENT OF THE NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE AND TRUST COMPANY 








BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


581 


stock issued to provide means for the payment of the debts of the insolvent 
banks, there was actually no security for the notes of the incorporated banks, 
which in 1848 amounted to $16,926,918, and their redemption rested solely on the 
solvency of each bank issuing the notes. So well were those banks conducted, 
however, and so wisely was the Bank Fund stock administered, that in 1853 the 

Superintendent of the Banking Department, Hon. Daniel B. St. John, thought 
that the contributions to the fund would be sufficient to pay the stock, and to 
redeem all circulating notes chargeable against the fund. 

The general banking act of 1838, provided that the bills of banks secured 
exclusively by State stocks should be stamped, “ Secured by pledge of public 
stocks; ” and that the bills of banks secured by State stocks and bonds and mort¬ 
gages should be stamped, "Secured by pledge of public stocks and real estate.” 

The stocks of any State were receivable as security; but the features of several 
free banking associations in 1839, induced the Legislature of 1840 to pass an act — 
chapter 363 — restricting public stocks receivable as security for currency to the 
stocks of the State of New York, which must be made equivalent to a five 

per cent stock in every instance. Twenty-six banks soon became insolvent. 

Their combined circulation was $1,197,559, and securities having a nominal value 
of $1,530,697,86 were pledged for the redemption of this circulation. On the sale 
of these securities, however, there was a loss of about $600,000; the stocks of 
other States being sold for less than fifty-five per cent of their nominal value, 
and of bonds and mortgages for about seventy per cent, while the stocks of this 
State only brought eighty-eight and fifty-seven one-hundredths per cent of their 
value. The loss to billholders exceeded $300,000, and there was a loss of $336,257 
to the billholders of insolvent chartered banks. If the Safety Fund had been 
confined to the protection of billholders, exclusively, it would have been sufficient 
for the purpose; and as it was, the contributions of one-half of one per cent to 
the Bank Fund afforded as much protection to the billholders as the deposit of 
securities, equaling in nominal value all the bills issued by the free banking asso¬ 
ciations. Experience showed that, under the original act, little reliance could be 
placed on the assets of an insolvent banking association. If, however, all the 
securities had been stocks of this State and bonds and mortgages, the loss would 
have been something over sixteen per cent, while the actual loss through the failure 
of free banking associations was nearly thirty-nine per cent. The loss to the first 
holders of the Safety-Fund notes was from twenty to twenty-five per cent, and 
there was a loss of about four years’ interest to subsequent purchasers; whereas, 
in the cases of the free banks, the securities were sold and proceeds paid to bill- 
holders within a few weeks after the failure of the bank. The comparison would 
be still more favorable to the Safety-Fund banks, however, if a system of registry 


582 


BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


had been in operation which would have prevented fraudulent issues, and if the 
law of 1829 had provided only for the redemption of circulating notes. By leaving 
the plates in possession of the banks, they were given the opportunity to dishon¬ 
estly make an overissue of currency; and by attempting too much, in securing 
depositors as well as billholders, the Legislature impaired the security of the com¬ 
munity, which was forced to take the circulating notes of the banks, and which 
alone was entitled to the protection of the State. 


State Credit the Basis of Banking. 

Experience with the incorporated banks and the free banking associations 
taught the same lesson: Government credit is the only secure basis of a currency, 
and solvent banks, possessing the confidence of the community, are, under ordinary 
circumstances, trustworthy institutions. No bank failed in the State, having a cir¬ 
culation secured wholly by stocks of the State or of the United States, the circu¬ 
lation of which was not redeemed at par with sufficient promptness to prevent 
loss either in efficiency or value prior to actual redemption. On the other hand, 
there was scarcely an exception to the rule, that there was loss to the billholders 
of insolvent banks whose circulation was secured by bond and mortgage, and not 
a single exception in the case of insolvent banks whose circulation was secured 
by stocks of other States; and in all such cases, also, the billholders who could 
not afford to wait were compelled to dispose of their currency at a still greater 
discount. With this experience to guide the legislation and in practical adminis¬ 
tration, the State now proceeded to perfect a banking system which, while continuing 
in existence the incorporated banks and the free banking associations, subjected 
both classes of institutions, as far as possible, to the same general principles. 

Fortunately, in this emergency, the Hon. Azariah C. Flagg was recalled to 
the office of Comptroller in 1842; and- in 1843 the Legislature passed an act abol¬ 
ishing the office of Bank Commissioner, and substituting the Comptroller as the 
superintendent of the banking institutions of the State. Even the change in the 
manner of appointing the Commissioners — in 1837 — had not resulted in keeping 
the banks out of the political storm-areas. Exclusive banking privileges were a 
part of the legitimate spoils of war; and they were seized upon — whichever party 
happened to be in power. Under the new law of 1843, the incorporated banks 
were no longer independent organizations, and the banking associations were no 
longer free, in the sense understood by the framers of the laws under which each 
class of banks had been organized. The incorporated banks were required to 
make a return of their circulation to the Comptroller, and to receive from him 




POWERS' BANKING HOUSE, ROCHESTER. 

















PRESIDENT OF THE ROCHESTER SAVINGS BANK 



BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


533 

registered notes in place of the notes thus returned to be canceled and destroyed. 
The Comptroller was authorized, “when he had good and sufficient reasons to 
suspect the condition of any bank,” to appoint an agent to investigate its affairs, 
who should possess all the powers of examination formerly possessed by the Bank 
Commissioners. When securities were deemed to have been impaired, banks were 
required either to give additional security or to pay interest received on bonds 
and mortgages to the Comptroller, or to return circulating notes equal to the 
amount of such interest. The rate of New York stocks—those of other States 
still being excluded — was increased to six per cent in 1848; and the mortgages 
were required to yield seven per cent on an amount not exceeding two-fifths of 
the value of the land, which must be productive property. Another amendment, 
in 1849, required that at least one-half of the securities should consist of New 
York State stocks, and not more than one-half should be in United States stocks — 
the stocks in all cases to be six per cent, and to be taken above neither par nor 
market value. The principle underlying the system of administration was the same 
with regard to both classes of institutions. The Bank-Fund stock, which was the 
security of the incorporated banks, was managed exclusively by the Comptroller, and 
the securities of the banking associations were carefully examined by him, to the 
end that at all times they should be adequate to the protection of billholders. 
This general policy was pursued by the successors of Mr. Flagg in the office 
of Comptroller, Millard Fillmore and Washington Hunt; the banks of this State 
becoming under their management the strongest and most secure of the banks of 
any one of the United States. 

Under the original free banking act, stockholders were not individually liable for 
the indebtedness of banks. The Convention of 1846, however, placed in the new 
Constitution a clause rendering them “ individually responsible to the amount of 
their respective share or shares of stock in any such corporation or association, for 
all its debts and liabilities of every kind.” The Fegislature was directed to “provide 
by law for the registry of all bills or notes issued or put in circulation as money,” 
and to “ require ample security for the redemption of the same in specie; ” and 
it was prohibited from “ sanctioning in any manner, directly or indirectly, the sus¬ 
pension of specie payments.” It was further provided that “ in case of the insol¬ 
vency of any bank or banking association, the billholders thereof shall be entitled 
to preference in payment over all other creditors of such bank or association ; ” 
and that “ the Fegislature shall have no power to pass any act granting any 
special charter for banking purposes; but corporations or associations may be 
formed for such purposes under general laws.” In 1849, an act was passed author¬ 
izing incorporated banks to reorganize under the general laws. Thus the system 
of banking, which had grown up under the supervision of the State, was indorsed 
















































1 * 

• • 

t 

















\ 





PRESIDENT OF THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK, UTICA. 












PRESIDENT OF THE FARMERS' LOAN AND TRUST COMPANY, NEW YORK CITY. 






BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


585 


institutions, which were protected by it as thoroughly as were the business interests 
of the State. The one element of weakness in the banking system of the State, 
was the admission of bonds and mortgages as security for circulation. This 
weakness did not arise from any lack of intrinsic value, but solely out of the 
impossibility of converting them into cash, without sacrifice; with sufficient rapidity 
to redeem at par the circulation for which they were pledged. All the bonds 
and mortgages sold under the act of 1838 did not produce over seventy-five per 
cent of their value; and yet, in 1854, when the Superintendent of the Banking 

Department held this class of securities in trust to the amount of $6,718,248.11, 
banks began to withdraw their stocks and to increase their deposits of bonds and 
mortgages. This was done, partly because of the stringency in the money market 
that year, and partly for the purpose of selling the stocks at the high market 

value they then held, and loaning the proceeds on bond and mortgage, depos¬ 
iting the needed amount of securities with the Banking Department ; and this 
notwithstanding the fact that they did not provide “ample security” for the bill- 
holders, as required by the Constitution. 

In this connection, a brief and cursory survey of the banking systems in several 
of the other States will be of interest. As a general rule the banks all through 
the United States were authorized to issue circulation without restriction, except 
that a certain percentage was to be kept on hand in coin — for the most part 

silver — for the redemption of bills whenever presented. As there was no ade¬ 

quate supervision or provision for the enforcement of this requirement, the banks 
did about as they pleased. The only control appeared to be the moral and finan¬ 
cial influence of the old United States Bank. The great lack of security was in 
regard to the billholders. The protection afforded to them in New York and New 
England, has been mentioned already. Massachusetts passed a law after the New 
York plan in 1851. Michigan authorized the issuing of bills on a pledge of real 
estate as security. The result of over-valued land was the over-supply of “wild¬ 
cat,” “red-dog” and “red-end” bills, wherever this system prevailed in the west; 
and of the “Brandon” bills in the south. Michigan afterward adopted the New 
York system of securing the circulation by bonds. Indiana adopted the “State 
Bank” system, consisting of a Board of Supervision and Control — the Branches 
doing all of the actual business. Each Branch contributed to a general safety- 
fund, and it was required to receive at par the bills of all other Branches, whether 
they were solvent or not. Thus, each Branch became interested in the good stand¬ 
ing of all the rest. In 1842, Ohio may be said to have had no banking system — 
the charters of the State banks having at that time nearly expired by limitation. 
A law was passed in that year, which provided a State Bank and Branches like 
the system in Indiana; and also independent banks on the New York plan, which 

74 


5 86 


BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


were limited in number. The free banking act of 1849 removed these restrictions, 
and the two kinds of banks did business side by side until the limitations of their 
charters, in 1862, enabled them to take advantage of the National Bank act. 
Pennsylvania for many years redeemed the notes of the country banks at the 
counters of the banks in Philadelphia. In 1857, the Legislature created a number 
of new banks — the most of which were for the borrowing rather than the lending 
of money. They lived scarcely a twelve-month — but prepared the way for the 
passage, in i860, of a free banking law similar in many respects to the one 
enacted by New York twenty-two years before. 


The Crises 0/1837 anc ^ 1 $57- 

It has been already stated that the crisis of 1837 was largely due to over¬ 
trading with foreign countries. The average imports for the four preceding years 
were $144,000,000, while the exports were only $111,000,000. Besides this adverse 
balance of trade, the mania for land speculation and the inflation of the currency 
must be held equally responsible for a disaster which eventually left bankrupt the 
greater part of the commercial debtors. Resumption took place in New England 
and New York in 1838, but the movement in Pennsylvania and the Southern 
and Western States, although attempted, was not sustained; and suspension once 
more followed. In all of those Western and Southern communities the feeble 
efforts of the banks to redeem their notes resulted in bankruptcy; or, at the 
first, in liquidation under the National Bankrupt Law of 1841. Wages ruled lower 
and lower; merchants and speculators were driven to agriculture for a living; and 
prosperity did not return till it flowed from the State of New York, where specie 
payments had been maintained since 1838, and where they were maintained till the 
panic of 1857. 

The immediate cause for the suspension of specie payments in 1857, was the 
demand for the redemption of bank-notes in the city of New York. While the 
credit of a bank depends upon the facility with which it can convert evidences 
of debt into specie to a sufficient extent to supply any demand, it is equally true 
that an extended and unnatural demand must be owing to an extended and 
unnatural condition of affairs. A system of paper credits may be so expanded 
as to be perilous in the extreme. This system, in 1857, had been thus enlarged. 
The banks in the city of New York met daily, in adjustment of business; and the 
effort was each day made to shift the balance of indebtedness from one to another, 
the balance all the time growing continuously larger. In 1850, the Legislature 
passed an act prohibiting corporations from interposing the defense of usury; and 




PRESIDENT OF THE MANHATTAN COMPANY BANK. NEW YORK CITY. 

















PRESIDENT OF THE FARMERS AI^D MECHANICS' NATIONAL BANK, BUFFALO. 




BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


587 


this act was a producing cause of the unnatural condition of affairs in 1857, for it 
authorized and encouraged usury. Then interest was paid on deposits, the banks 
thus becoming borrowers instead of lenders of money, and their liabilities were 
forced up to an unsafe degree. The money thus borrowed could not be as profit¬ 
ably loaned upon bonds and mortgages as in aid of speculative enterprises; and 
it was thus loaned. In this manner the circulation was turned into unhealthy 
channels, speculation being pushed until business became excited and feverish, while 
in ordinary trade there was a curtailment of currency; and then the failure of 
speculative schemes produced concern among the regular depositors in banks, who 
feared that their funds would be lost in the multiplicity of projects. They, there¬ 
fore, became alarmed. The first movement toward a lack of confidence had already 
taken place in the failure of the Ohio Life and Trust Company — a gigantic cor¬ 
poration with both trust and banking powers, whose main office was in Cincinnati, 
but whose branch office in New York kept the deposits of nearly all of the Ohio 
banks. The strain upon the Ohio bank system was severe, but it managed to 
weather the gale. The unfortunate failure of the Ohio Life and Trust Company 
was followed by that of the Mechanics’ Banking Association, one of the oldest free 
banking organizations in this State. Then the banks of Pennsylvania and Maryland 
suspended, and two or three incorporated banks in this State were closed. Toward 
the close of September there was an unprecedented pressure upon the banks in 
the interior of New York to redeem their circulation, whereupon they returned 
their notes to the Banking Department and withdrew their stocks, in order to 
meet their obligations in the city of New York; the entire amount thus surren¬ 
dered reaching the sum of $3,198,099.42. The depositors in the banks in the 
city of New York now became alarmed, and the pressure upon those institutions 
was so great that, with one exception, they were unable to withstand it, and on 
the 13th of October they suspended specie payments. 

In June, 1857, foreign exchange ruled rather in favor of New York, and was 
below par when the banks suspended; specie was at a premium of one-quarter 
to one-half per cent; crops were abundant; the country was at peace within and 
without, and there was an entire exemption from pestilence. When suspension 
took place in 1814 the United States was at war with Great Britain. In 1837, 
the country was oppressed with a heavy foreign indebtedness, and was importing 
the staple productions of our own soil, and must, therefore, either have paid its 
debts in coin on demand or repudiated its obligation ; and foreign exchange 
ruled so high that suspension was inevitable. In 1857, however, there was neither 
foreign war nor foreign indebtedness ; but there was an importunate, and up to 
that time, unknown internal demand for coin. The banks were even less able to 
meet a general demand in 1857 than they were in 1837. In the latter year, on the 


5 88 


BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


ist of June, their total immediate liabilities were $43,974,000, to meet which they 
had $6,557,000, or one dollar in coin to every $6.70 in specie demands. On the 
6th of June, 1857, their liabilities were $127,703,000, to meet which they had only 
$14,400,000, in specie, or one dollar to every $8.89 in coin demands. Meantime 
the circulation had only increased from $24,000,000 to $34,000,000, while the amount 
on deposit had advanced from $19,000,000 to $197,000,000. In 1857, therefore, 
instead of leaving capitalists to enter into business on their own behalf, using 
banks as places of deposit, the banks sought to hire money at low rates of interest 
and to loan it at advanced rates in aid of doubtful enterprises, thus producing 
an expansion of paper credits, having no other basis than notes whose value 
depended entirely upon the success of those ventures; and this was the cause of 
the demand which resulted in suspension. A comprehensive statement of the 
financial strength of the banks of this State at the time when they were surprised 
by the panics of 1837, 1857 and 1873 will be of interest. The exact figures below 
$100,000 are not given. 



Banks. 

Capital. 

Loans. 

Deposits. 

Circulation. 

Specie. 

1836,. 

86 

$31,300,000 

$72,500,000 

$19,100,000 

$21,100,000 

$6,200,000 

1837-. 

98 

37,100,000 

79,300,OOO 

19,300,000 

24, 200 ,OOO 

6,600.000 

1856,. 

303 

96,400,000 

183,900,000 

96,900,000 

34,000,000 

I 2 ,QOO,OOO 

1857. 

3 ii 

107,500,000 

170,800,000 

83,500,000 

27,100,000 

14,300,000 

1872,. 

356 

135,100,000 

335,000,000 

317,800,000 

59,000,000 

7,800,000 

1873.. 

356 

135,200,000 

357,400,00c 

294,100,000 

5 7,800,000 

17,700,000 


The JI ar of 1861—1865, and Suspension . 

On the nth of December, 1857 — after a suspension of only two months — the 
banks of New York city unanimously resolved to settle in specie all balances at 
the Clearing House. Such a step could not have been taken without the agency 
of this institution; which then proved its usefulness — although only four years 
old — even more than it has in subsequent years. A short period of great pros¬ 
perity followed in both the State and the Nation. In 1859, out of one thousand 
six hundred and forty-nine banks in the United States, three hundred and three 
were in the State of New York. Of a total of $425,000,000 capital, the New 
York banks held $112,000,000; of the $191,000,000 of circulation, they had 
$28,000,000; and of the $84,000,000 of specie, they held $23,000,000. Such was 
the thrifty financial condition of the Empire State when the civil war of 1861-65 
broke out and early made plain the fact that heavy loans would be required by 
the United States Government. At this time the banks held nearly all the specie 
in the country to redeem their paper currency and their deposits. In August. 
























OULU. 


PRESIDENT OF THE THIRD NATIONAL BANK, BUFFALO 

















PRESIDENT OF THE MERCHANTS' EXCHANGE NATIONAL BANK, NEW YORK CITY 





BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


589 


1861, the actual amount of coin held by the banks of New York was $49,733,990, 
against $92,046,308 of deposits and $8,521,426 of circulation. The banks of Boston 
held $6,665,929 of coin, against $18,235,061 of deposits and $6,366,466 of circula¬ 
tion. The banks of Philadelphia held $6,765,120 of coin against $15,335,838 of 
deposits and $2,076,857 of circulation. The total coin reserve was $63,165,039, 
against $142,581,956 of liabilities. Financial authorities knew that to remove the 
specie would be to suspend payments of coin and let loose an unlimited quantity 
of paper money, which could have no other result than to increase prices and 
enlarge the National debt to enormous proportions. The bankers of the larger 
cities protested against the actual transfer of the gold, loaned to the Government, to 
the Treasury vault. They wished to maintain specie payments by the banks because 
the banks did a larger volume of business than the Government. They pleaded 
for the continued use of the Clearing-House system, by which millions of business 
could be transacted with very small amounts of cash. But the Secretary of the 
Treasury chose not to use the permission conceded to him by the act of August 
5, 1861, and insisted upon the actual surrender of the specie. The required 

$150,000,000 of coin were, therefore, transported to the United States Treasury 
between August and November, 1861. So little of this returned to the banks, 
and so great was the drain caused by the Treasury notes that, on the 31st of 

December, the banks were obliged to suspend specie payments. 

If suspension could have been deferred from 1861 to a later date, the legal- 
tender act of February, 1862, would also have been postponed. It is probable 

that it would never have been enacted if the Government had made the trial on 

a gold basis. This was the basis for which a large number of leading bankers 

contended, and on which the Government itself finally decided to settle the 

$8,000,000 of the bonds of 1842 that became due January 1, 1863 — a decision 

that would have been worthless if the bankers of New York city had not advanced 
the required specie and thus committed the Government to a final payment of the 
new loan in coin. It was the original purpose of the act of 1862 to fund both 
the legal-tender greenback and the other floating debt of the United States with 
a five-twenty bond bearing six per cent interest in coin, so that the issue of 

greenbacks should cease with the exigencies of the war. It was not designed to 

enter upon an era of irredeemable paper currency — but the era came because 

sound financial principles had been violated. It was hastened by the partial repeal 

of the law of 1862, so that after January 21, 1864, greenbacks ceased to be fund- 

able at par into five-twenty bonds. Deprived of one of its chief safeguards, the 
greenback fell in value rapidly. As compared with gold, its lowest quotation in 
1862 was one to one and thirty-seven hundredths; in 1863, one to one and seventy- 
two and one-half hundredths; in 1864, one to two and eighty-five hundredths. 


590 


BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


The situation was greatly improved at the end of the war, in 1865, when a large 
demand for our securities set in from abroad. It must be admitted that in all 
of these financial straits and in the placing of the Government bonds, the National 
banks served a good turn. For over seventy years after the end of the American 
Revolution, the notes of many of the State banks were a fraud upon the public. 
In 1838, while the rate against some places in Pennsylvania was two cents on the 
dollar, it was one and one-quarter to five cents against Virginia; three to five 
against North Carolina; three and one-half to ten against Georgia; seven to 
twenty against Alabama; five to twelve and one-half against Louisiana; fifteen 
to thirty-five against Mississippi; three to twelve and one-half against Tennessee; 
three and one-half to seven and one-half against Kentucky; five to seven and 
one-half against Indiana and Illinois; and four to seven against Ohio. The cur¬ 
rency of the National banks — which was equally good in all parts of the country — 
was thus eulogized by Mr. Chase: “Every dollar of it would represent real capital 
actually invested in National stock — the imprint of the National seal authenticating 
the declaration borne on each that it is secured by bonds which represent the 
faith and capital of the whole country.” From the very first hint of the National- 
bank system the city and State of New York stood forth prominent in its advo¬ 
cacy. The banking laws of the State had sustained a similar system for many 
years. On the other hand, the banks of New England for some time stood by 
the Suffolk system, and declared that it would be absurd to require a deposit of 
bonds to secure the circulation. 


The Panic of 1873, and Resumption. 

When the war closed, in 1865, the foreign demand for Government bonds set 
free a large amount of National-bank capital which was soon transferred to private 
loans and discounts. The total of these increased from $498,000,000 in December, 
1865, to $940,000,000 in September, 1873. The wealth of the Nation appeared 
enormous, rated as it was in greenbacks. Private debts had been almost univer¬ 
sally paid. Vast quantities of paper money were released by the disbandment of 
the armies, and large numbers of men were changed to productive consumers. Cap¬ 
ital reached forth into new and untried fields. New investments were freely made; 
property advanced rapidly; and manufactories were started and maintained at great 
cost. Over-valuation was closely followed by over-production. The manufacture of 
iron, the building of railroads and steamers, and the production of fabrics of all kind 
exceeded the demand. A currency-panic came in the summer of 1873—the warning 
of what was to come in September. Production was curtailed, but consumption fell 




PRESIDENT OF THE BROOKLYN SAVINGS BANK 



































PRESIDENT OF THE CHEMICAL NATIONAL BANK. NEW YORK CITY 











BANKING AND CURRENCY. 


59i 


off more rapidly in proportion. Capital still demanded high rates of interest, regard¬ 
less of the old maxim “ Security falls as interest rises.” The Government debt 
bore six per cent interest in gold. Corporations with good credit paid eight to 
ten per cent; while farms at the West were mortgaged at from ten to twelve 
per cent. The United States increased its imports over its exports, between 1863 
and 1873 by $1,086,440,587; and from 1869 to 1873, by $554,052,607. The tonnage 
of American vessels in foreign trade dwindled from two million three hundred and 
seventy-nine thousand three hundred and ninety-six tons in i860 to one million 
three hundred and seventy-eight thousand five hundred and thirty-three tons in 
1873. At length the day came for settlement on a basis of honest values. That a 
scarcity of currency was not the cause of the panic is evident from the fact that 
the total amount of greenbacks and National bank notes outstanding in 1873 was 
$759,440,863, or $2,216,968 more than it was July 1, 1865. At that figure, only 
one-half of the extra $54,000,000 allowed by the act of June, 1870, had been issued, 
because there was no demand for it. Mistaking the panic for an actual demand, 
the Secretary of the Treasury threw out $26,000,000 in United States notes—only 
to be absorbed by the banks in unbroken packages. The comparative amounts of 
specie, circulation, etc., in 1872 and 1873 may be seen by the table on page 588. 

The evil had been done, and the remedy must be briefly told. At that time — 
1873-1875 — specie payments had been suspended, not only in the United States 

but also in France, Italy, Austria and Russia. All of these nations except Russia 

provided for resumption within a brief period thereafter. Long discussions in the 

Congress of the United States resulted in the enactment of the resumption act of 

1875, which declared that the fractional currency should be replaced with silver; that 
free banking should be allowed; and that United States notes should be paid in 
gold and silver on the 1st of January, 1879. The State of New York, in all of 
these contests, was always found on the side of hard and honest money — and against 
the theories of western financiers — even the repeal of the State resumption act of 
1875 being attributable to the wider scope and power of the National act. With 
New Yorkers, resumption was a question of principle and not of party; and none 
rejoiced more than they when it came, after a suspension of seventeen years. And 
yet even this longest period of suspension in our history was seven years shorter 
than that of the Bank of England in 1797. 

The brief limits of this article will not permit the discussion of bimetalism; 
of the legal-tender act of 1878; or of many other interesting subjects that are 
closely connected with banking and the currency.. As a fitting conclusion to this 
paper, the following table is given. The figures for the National and State banks 
are for the 1st of October, 1882; and, for the Savings banks, for the 1st of 
January, 1883. 


TABLE showing the comparative Resources and Liabilities of National, State and Savings Banks. 


BANKING AND CURRENCY. 





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(«) Includes circulating notes of National banks. ( b) Due Treasurer of the State of New York. (c) Due individuals and corporations other than banks and depositors. {d ) Bonds and 

mortgages. ( e ) On hand. (/) Amount loaned on public stocks. (g) Assets not already mentioned. (h) Other liabilities. (i) Stocks, bonds and mortgages. 






























































PRESIDENT OF THE ONONDAGA COUNTY SAVINGS BANK SYRACUSE. 















NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY’S BUILDING 


































































































































INSURANCE. 

By HENRY F. HOMES. 

Alter alter ius oner a port ate* 

+ 

J|T is generally admitted that the contract for loans on bottomry and respon- 
dentia among the Greeks, Romans, and other early nations formed at least 
the traditionary ground-work on which arose the insurance systems of modern 
Europe.f Insurance of houses and goods began in London in 1667, the year fol¬ 
lowing the great fire, but the first successful underwriting by corporations in England 
may be credited to the Hand in Hand Fire, in 1696, and the Amicable Life, incor¬ 
porated in 1706. The Equitable Society of London, however, organized in 1762, 
should be considered the pioneer in insuring lives for premiums based on scientific 
principles. In the year 1800 only eight life companies were in operation in 
England. 

For many years foreign insurance companies and those of other States were 
actually, or by excessive taxation virtually, prohibited from doing business in this 
State ; but this narrow policy was finally abandoned, when the value of foreign 
capital for the protection of our citizens was fully recognized. Although reports 
were made to the Comptroller by many of the New York companies from 1830 
to 1859, there was little active supervision of the companies until the organization, 
in 1859, of the New York Insurance Department, under the superintendency of 
Mr. William Barnes. The ease with which irresponsible parties could incorporate 
under the general laws of 1849 an d 1853, inducing the formation' of many fraud¬ 
ulent companies, finally led to the organization of this separate department for 
the supervision of insurance companies. The results have proved the wisdom of 
its establishment. The Reports issued by the department during the past twenty- 
three years, although valuable, are but an index of the work accomplished by it 


*The motto on the first seal of the New York State Insurance Department. 
fWalford on Insurance. 

75 


[593] 



594 


INSURANCE. 


during that time. While the administration of its affairs has not at all times been 
free from criticism, the department has always proved a check upon unworthy com¬ 
panies, and many of its annual Reports are full of useful information and sug¬ 
gestions. Of the Reports annually published by the different State Insurance Depart¬ 
ments, those of Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania are the most valuable. 
The growth and paramount importance of the insurance interests are shown by 
the fact that a compilation of all the laws of this State relating to insurance 

companies now makes a volume of over five hundred pages. 

In Great Britain the same company frequently assumes fire, marine and life 

risks, but in New York State, life companies are strictly prohibited from transacting 
any other kind of business, and fire companies are only authorized to add insur¬ 
ance against the risks of inland navigation and transportation. The system of 
state supervision in Great Britain is not as thorough as in this country. Com¬ 
panies doing a life business there, are required to report to the Board of Trade, 
but other insurance companies are not obliged to give any information regarding 
their financial standing and transactions, although a majority of them do furnish 
such statements. 

The first national insurance convention met in New York city, May 24, 1871, 

pursuant to a call from the Superintendent of the New York Department. Its 
members were delegates from the various State bureaus having the supervision of 
insurance interests. Subsequent meetings have been held annually in different States, 
and with some success, for the avowed purpose of securing “ uniformity, simplicity, 
security and reciprocity” in the legislation, taxation and supervisory methods of the 
several States. 

Insurance has probably given rise, in one form or another, to more pages of 

printed matter than any one of the great business interests of this country. Since 
the publication of Phipps’ Law of Life Insurance in 1823, and the chapters on 
Insurance in Chancellor Kent’s Commentaries, in 1828, the legal reports abound in 
decisions of insurance questions; and, in later years, elaborate digests and legal 
treatises have appeared in this and foreign countries with great frequency. Poole’s 
“ Index to General Periodical Literature” shows a remarkable number of articles 
on insurance topics covering a wide and instructive range. The American Experi¬ 
ence Valuation Tables, four and one-half per cent interest, computed and printed 
by the New York Insurance Department at an expense of $40,000, are without 
doubt the most complete tables of the kind ever published. “ Life Tables with 
appropriate formulas for the Solution of Questions pertaining to Life Contingencies” 
is the title of a volume of four hundred and eighty-one pages, prepared by Messrs. 
Lawton and Griffen, actuaries of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, and published 
in 1873- Several of the companies have printed elaborate mortuary statistics based 



PRESIDENT OF THE AGRICULTURAL INSURANCE COMPANY 








—' 


PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY 








INSURANCE. 


595 


on their individual experience for a period of years, those of the Mutual Life and 
Mutual Benefit being the most noteworthy and valuable. 

Among the leading insurance journals in New York may be mentioned ‘ The 
Insurance Monitor,” “The Insurance Times,” “The Insurance Age,” and “The 
Insurance Law Journal ” among the monthlies, and the “Spectator,” “The Chron¬ 
icle,” and “The Underwriter” among- the weeklies.* 

Among many useful compilations published through the enterprise of the 
insurance journals, may be mentioned the “Chronicle Lire Tables for eight years, 
1875—1882, inclusive.” These tables show that the total fire losses/ in the United 
States in 1882 were $84,505,024, of which the insurance companies paid $48,875,131. 
The same items in Canada amounted respectively to $5,605,940 and $3,047,341. 
The amount of loss in each State is given for each year, and the causes of fire 
in 1882. The total losses for the period of seven years amounted to $593,447,609, 
of which $328,181,431 were borne by the companies. But the most novel tabula¬ 
tion is a classification of the buildings burned during the eight years in the United 
States and Canada. Opposite each of four hundred classes is given the total 
number of buildings of that class in existence in 1880, according to the last United 
States census, thus furnishing a basis for calculating the annual percentage of 
buildings burned to those existing. These tables can only be approximately cor¬ 
rect, but they are at least an important step toward securing data that may give 
to the business of fire insurance some such element of certainty as is secured to 
that of life insurance by trustworthy tables of mortality.' 

Space will not admit of reference to the many valuable contributions made 
to insurance literature by authors in foreign countries during the past one hundred 
and fifty years. The more technical works on the science of insurance are the 
result of profound researches and vast labor, given by the most eminent mathe¬ 
maticians and statisticians of their times with no chance of adequate pecuniary 
compensation. A most exhaustive catalogue of insurance bibliography is now 
appearing in the columns of the New York- Insurance Times. Special mention 
should be made of the “Insurance Cyclopaedia” edited by Cornelius Walford, 
Esq., now in course of publication in London. This great work when completed 
will fill sixteen large octavo volumes, and what has already appeared justifies its 
claim to be “ a dictionary of all insurance terms,” “ a biographical summary,” “ a 
bibliographical repertory,” and “an historical treasury of events.” 


*Use has been made in this article of many facts given in the “Insurance Blue Book” of 1876, published at the 
office of the Insurance Monitor, and in the “ Year Book for 1882,” published by the Spectator Company. 



59^ 


INSURANCE. 


Fire Insurance. 

Chancellor Kent states that, prior to the year 1800, the business of insurance 
in the United States was carried on almost entirely by private individuals; but 
twenty-nine insurance companies, mostly fire, were chartered between 1780 and 1799, 
and several of them still exist." 

From the year 1800 to 1820 less than one hundred insurance companies were 
chartered in the United States, and only two of these were in places west of the 
Atlantic sea-board. During this period fire-bucket brigades of -dutiful citizens 
gradually yielded, in cities, to volunteer, but organized, fire companies with hand- 
fire-engines and riveted hose. Steam fire-engines were generally introduced in the 
large cities between the years i860 and 1865. 

In 1814 the New York Legislature made provision for the dissolution of 

insolvent companies, and in 1825 a law was enacted that no incorporated fire 
company should pay a dividend except from surplus profits. 

While periods of prosperity have marked the history of fire insurance com¬ 
panies, there have also been seasons in which they have experienced great, and 

in some cases irretrievable, losses. The conflagration which visited New York city 
in 1835 swept away $15,000,000, and bankrupted every one of the twenty-six fire 
companies of that city with three exceptions — the North River, the Greenwich 
and the Bowery. Six years elapsed, even with the aid of special legislation, before 
all the claims for losses were adjusted, but the average dividends finally paid 
amounted to three-fourths of the entire claims. The consequent distrust of stock 
insurance companies led to the formation of a great number of mutual fire insur¬ 
ance companies throughout the country. During the next ten years constant failures 
occurred among these “mutuals,” due partly to fraud and partly to inexperience and 
mismanagement. Further encouragement, however, was given to their continued 
formation by the second great fire in New York, in 1845, and by the too liberal 

provisions of the general act, passed in 1849, “for the incorporation of insurance 
companies;” but before 1852 nearly all of them had failed, causing losses of nearly 
$3,000,000 to their policy-holders. The general law of 1853, with the amendments 
thereto, restricted somewhat the further organization of dishonest or irresponsible 
mutual companies, and in 1859 nearly two-thirds of those reporting to the Comp¬ 
troller in 1853 had disappeared. The history of many of the stock fire companies 

*A very complete tabular history of all the fire companies that ever filed reports in New York State down to 1876, 
may be found in the “Insurance Blue Book” for that year, and down to 1883 in the Spectator Company’s annual “Fire 
Insurance Pocket Index.” 





PRESIDENT OF THE CITIZENS' INSURANCE COMPANY 














PRESIDENT OF THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY. 



INSURANCE. 


597 


incorporated during this period was still more discreditable, but partial remedies 
were found in the examinations ordered by the Comptroller, in legislation, and 
especially in the organization of the New York Insurance Department. Of ninety- 
six companies which reported to the Superintendent in i860, only fifty-one reported 
in 1883, yet the growth of the business done by them has more than kept pace 
with the increased wealth of the country, the rapid growth of cities, and the 
demands of commercial and manufacturing interests. The war at first caused a 
temporary depression in insurance business, but the subsequent expansion of the 
currency and growth of trade resulted in the increasing of the premium receipts 
of the New York stock fire companies from $7,000,000 in i860 to $20,000,000 in 
1865. With the close of the war, however, came a great increase in competition, 
incendiarism and losses. The first National Congress of Fire Underwriters, which 
assembled in New York city in May, 1846, found that the average annual profit for 
the previous twenty years had been less than three per cent. Almost simultane¬ 
ously with the great Portland fire, in 1866, came the formation of the National 
Board of Fire Underwriters. Commencing with an earnest purpose to establish a 
remunerative tariff and a uniform policy, to reform abuses and secure just legisla¬ 
tion and taxation, the history of the board has been one of limited success’ 

frequent discouragement, and final inability to maintain a tariff in the face of 

extreme competition and reckless underwriting by many of the companies. While 
the premiums collected in New York city in 1867 amounted to $8,228,845, in 
1881 they amounted to only $5,103,749. 

From 1870 the reaction which set in everywhere, from the inflation following 
the war, seriously affected insurance interests; but the crushing blow came from the 
great Chicago conflagration, which commenced October 2, 1871, destroying property 
to the value of $190,000,000 — or three times the loss by the London fire in 

1666 — and calling upon two hundred companies for the settlement of $90,000,000 
of losses. Sixty-four companies were forced to retire from business, but about 
sixty per cent of the losses was ultimately paid. The New York companies lost 
$23,000,000, and twenty failures resulted. November 9, 1872, the companies again 
suffered grievously by the great fire in Boston, which entailed a loss to the com¬ 
munity of about $100,000,000, and to New York companies of $7,000,000. 

At a special session of the Massachusetts Legislature, in 1872, it was enacted 
that all cities of over four thousand inhabitants should be divided into districts, and 
that no company should be allowed to write, in any one district, an amount in excess 
of its net assets. Under this law Boston was divided into thirty-one districts. 

In the “Spectator Year Books” will be found abstracts of legal decisions and 
of the legislation of the several States, and in the volume for 1882, a list is 
given of four hundred and thirty-eight fire companies that have failed or retired 


598 


INSURANCE. 


from business. The last volume shows the market value of the stocks of American 
fire companies for a period of twelve years, and the dividends paid by them during 
the same time. The New York Insurance Report for 1868 gives the date of 
incorporation, and all amendatory acts, of each of the one hundred and five New 
York stock fire companies then existing. The Report for 1869 gives the total 

premium receipts and losses of one hundred and fifty-six companies—including 
fifty-one of other States — from the date of their organization, showing an aggregate 
of $347,802,049 of premiums, and $207,424,515 of losses. The Report for 1881 
claims that “ during a term of seven years not a dollar has been lost to any 
policy-holder on account of the insolvency of any fire company organized or doing 
business in this State.” Several of the Reports protest against the prevailing 
system of over insurance as being a direct incentive to incendiarism, which is 
variously estimated to cause from forty to seventy per cent of all losses to the 
companies. The efforts of the National Board to reduce this serious moral hazard 
by a system of rewards for the conviction of incendiaries have resulted in the 
payment of eighty-eight rewards prior to 1883, and in the securing of one hun¬ 

dred and thirty-seven convictions, including ten life sentences. The number of 
rewards offered from 1873 to 1S83 was thirteen hundred and ninety-three. The 
efforts in several States to establish a valued policy law, as a measure of damages 
in case of total loss of property, have proved futile, and are justly discouraged, 
as being a clear incentive to fraud. The New York Report for 1875 discussed 
favorably the proposition that no person upon whose premises a fire originates, if 
such premises are in a city, shall recover more than one-half the value of his 
insurance, provided any contiguous building shall be burned by reason of such fire; 
and in 1876 it advised that each town should pay losses caused by incendiary fires, 

as they are now obliged to do in case of losses caused by mobs. 

An important act was passed by the New York Legislature in 1874 (amended 
in 1878) allowing companies to accumulate in the Insurance Department, from 
their surplus earnings, two funds, equal in amount, to be known as “ the guarantee 
surplus fund” and “the special reserve fund.” In case of extensive conflagrations, 
causing losses to a company in excess of its assets, excepting the special reserve 
fund, this latter fund is exempted from any liability, provided that the company 
increases it, if necessary, to $200,000, and uses the same as a new capital on which 
to transact future business. Although the provisions of this law seem to be emi¬ 
nently just to the insured and the insurers, only seven companies have availed 
themselves of its provisions. These companies have deposited an aggregate amount 
of $1,653,000. 

Fire insurance companies should receive premiums adequate to pay losses; to 
cover the cost of distributing among the many the losses of the few; to maintain 






PRESIDENT OF THE GLENS FALLS INSURANCE COMPANY 












PRESIDENT OF THE HANOVER FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY 









INSURANCE. 


599 


a safe surplus; and to compensate their stockholders for the risk of the capital 
stock. That this risk of capital is great is shown by the forced retirement from 
business of many more companies than now exist. Excessive competition has 
proved so ruinous to the companies, in spite of the efforts of numerous State 
and local boards to maintain rates, that in 1880 an association was formed, known 
as “The United Fire Underwriters in America.” Its fundamental principle appears 
to be to allow the local agents of the associated companies, as a body, to fix the 
rates for their respective localities, and, as these will, presumably, be adequate and 
equitable, the companies pledge themselves not to deviate therefrom. 

The full statistics of fire insurance in the United States cannot be obtained. 

/ 

There are very many local companies, especially of the purely mutual class, whose 
reports are not on file in any State Department. Most of them transact a com¬ 
paratively small business, but the aggregate adds materially to the volume done 
throughout the country. The insurance journals have been very zealous in col¬ 
lecting all available data for publication. The fire statistics for the year 1881, 
published by the Hartford “Insurance Journal,” include abstracts from the reports of 
two hundred and ninety joint-stock companies, eight hundred and twenty-nine mutual 
companies, and twenty-six foreign companies doing business in this country. They 
show an aggregate of $11,000,000,000 at risk, and $79,000,000 of premiums, giving 
an average rate of seventy-three cents for each $100 at risk. 

Foreign companies doing business in New York State are required to deposit 
$200,000 with the Insurance Department, and, in addition, to keep assets, equal 
to all liabilities incurred, in the hands of trustees, who are citizens and residents 
of this country, and approved by the Insurance Superintendent. In the State 
Report for 1878 will be found copies of all the trust deeds executed by foreign 
companies under this requirement. In his Report for 1882, the Superintendent 
urges the propriety of making the department a trustee for these assets to the 
extent of the liabilities of the respective companies. 

The following table gives, as nearly as can be secured, the statistics of the 
fire insurance business transacted in the United States in 1881 : 



Joint-stock Com¬ 
panies (316).* 

Mutual Companies 
(829). 

Capital, - - - --- -------- 

$80,725,602 


Assets, - -- -- -- --. 


$25,75s,214 

Income, - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - 

90,887,492 

9 . 353-604 

Expenditures, --------------- 

73,123,187 

7 . 913.346 

Premiums, ---------------- 

71,798,812 

6 , 951.548 

Losses, - -- -- -- -- --. 

42,430,459 

3 . 595.403 

Dividends, ---------------- 

8,410,513 


Risks written in 1881, - -- -- -- -- -- -- 

8,719,139,440 

698,770,571 

Risks in force December 31, 1881, - -- -- -- -- -- 

9 -° 39 . 339 . 9 8 ° 

2,096,058,883 


♦Includes twenty-six foreign companies. 



















6oo 


INSURANCE. 


The following table shows the relative progress of the New York State joint- 
stock fire insurance companies, and those of other States authorized to do business 
in New York State, for the years i860, 1865, 1870, 1875 and 1880: 


New 

York State Companies. 




YEAR. 

Number of 
Companies. 

Capital. 

Gross Assets. 

Premiums 

received. 

Losses paid. 

i860, - -- -- -- -- 

95 

$20,482,850 

$26,860,190 

$7,261,595 

$3,984,442 

1865, --------- 

109 

31 , 557,010 

45,360,887 

19,620,068 

13, 99 1 ,996 

1S70, - - -. 

105 

29,761,232 

54,248,940 

21,504,931 

12,310,498 

1875 .. 

IOI 

27,107,020 

59,906,224 

22,996,843 

10,101,829 

1880, - -- -- -- -- 

78 

24,107,020 

57 , 451,218 

20,700,582 

11,182,106 

Companies of other States. 




i860, - -- -- -- -- 

33 

$9,815,900 

$17,412,196 

$6,146,106 

$4,466,028 

1865,. 

37 

12,725,740 

25,005,891 

9,899,023 

6,619,586 

1870,. 

62 

22,971, IOI 

48,165,044 

21,088,153 

13,638,830 

1875.. 

85 

28,276,090 

65,193,388 

29,786,127 

i 6 , 454 ,S 2 S 

1880, - -- -- -- -- 

52 

25,028,000 

64 , 735,978 

23 , 044.434 

14,097,192 

Companies of 

THIS AND OTHER STATES COMBINED. 



i860, - -- -- -- -- 

128 

$30,298,750 

$ 44 , 272,386 

$ 13 , 407,701 

$8,450,470 

1865,. 

146 

44,282,750 

70,366,778 

29,519,091 

20,611,582 

1870, - - -. 

167 

52 , 732,333 

102,413,984 

42,593,084 

25,949,328 

1875.. 

186 

55,383,110 

125,099,612 

52 , 782,970 

26,556,657 

1880, .. 

130 

49 , 135,020 

122,187,196 

43,745,016 

25,279,298 


The following figures for the year ending December 31, 1882, are compiled 
from statements filed in the New York State Insurance Department by companies 


doing business in this State. The returns from foreign companies include only 
the assets and business in the United States. The gross assets of these foreign 

O o 

companies, at home and abroad, approximate $200,000,000. 


Reports for year ending December 31, 1882. 

New York State 
Companies. 

Companies 
of other States. 

Foreign 

Companies. 

T otals. 

Assets, - --------- 

Capital, -. 

Unearned-premium fund, -. 

Unpaid losses, . ... 

Total liabilities, including capital, ------ 

Net surplus December 31, 1882, ------ 

Net surplus December 31, 1881, ------ 

Income: 

Fire premiums, - -- -- -- - 

Marine and inland premiums, ------ 

Interest receipts, - -- -- -- - 

All other receipts, - -- -- -- - 

$56,251,273 

21,937,020 

14,097,443 

2,323,310 

38,768,968 

17,482,305 

17,918,799 

$75,173,614 

31,128,000 

20,720,237 

2 , 933,384 

55 , 144,930 

20,028,684 

20 , 572,452 

$32,630,306 

*5,600,000 

14,081,293 

2,146,211 

116,822,030 

+10,208,276 

10,208,275 

$164,055,193 
58,665,020 
48,898,973 
7,402,905 
110 , 735,928 
47,719,264 
48,962,402 

$21,017,988 

997,510 

2,238,007 

172,837 

$22,926,80S 
4,362,761 
3,285,064 
354,337 

$23,988,067 

136,387 

1.055,723 
62,869 

$67,932,863 

5,496,658 

6 , 578,794 

590,043 

Total income of all kinds, ------- 

Expenditures : 

Fire losses paid, -------- 

Marine and inland losses paid, ------ 

Dividends to stockholders, ------ 

All other expenses, . .. 

$24,426,342 

$30,928,970 

$25,243,046 

$80,598,358 

$11,883,522 

576,666 

2 , 235,942 

8,638,683 

$13,836,461 

3,227,809 

3,780,731 

8,980,404 

$15,019,248 

70,954 

7,643,823 

$40,739,231 

3 , 875.429 

6,016,673 

25,262,910 

Total expenditures of all kinds, -. 

$ 23 , 334,813 

$29,825,405 

$22,734,025 

$75,894,243 

j Number of companies,.. 

66 

56 

28 

150 


Deposit-capital in New York Department. 


+ Resides deposit-capital. 























































































PRESIDENT OF THE NIAGARA FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY. 










PRESIDENT OF THE PHENIX INSURANCE COMPANY 










INSURANCE. 


601 


ABSTRACTS from statements filed in New York State Insurance Department for the year ending 

December 31, 1882.* 


NEW YORK STATE 
COMPANIES. 

Assets. 

Capital stock. 

Fire premiums. 

Fire losses. 

Total income. 

Total 

expenditures. 

Agricultural, ... 

_ 

51,521,623 83 

$300,000 OO 

$652,033 54 

$236,506 96 

$720,500 73 

$571,361 40 

Albany, ... 

- 

366,278 96 

200,000 OO 

56,796 93 

21,580 71 

68,593 75 

59,566 54 

American, ... 

- 

1,109,831 68 

400,000 OO 

217,534 Si 

96,673 42 

264,800 48 

209,666 98 

American Exchange, - 

- 

288,246 46 

200,000 OO 

45,018 84 

7,646 48 

64,261 76 

64,051 35 

Broadway, ... 

- 

557,310 23 

200,000 OO 

37,874 04 

6,751 37 

63,004 20 

58,055 48 

Brooklyn, ... 

- 

386,7S2 54 

153,000 00 

46,248 88 

19.464 34 

62,271 71 

77.942 45 

J Buffalo, .... 

- 

271,405 13 

200,000 00 

46,116 40 

49,625 48 

122,931 40 

123,656 97 

Buffalo German, 

- 

936,940 54 

200,000 00 

350,804 04 

190,898 38 

390,024 OI 

341,242 98 

Citizens, ... 

- 

1,032,497 46 

300,000 00 

366,129 50 

228,394 40 

407,605 6l 

409,353 95 

City, .... 

- 

413,249 96 

210,000 00 

42,406 66 

22,357 39 

63,073 09 

74,095 83 

Clinton, .... 

- 

501,751 86 

250,000 00 

176,752 58 

99,786 96 

196,387 94 

190,397 76 

Commerce, 

- 

421,277 59 

200,000 00 

115,992 03 

79.310 63 

135,079 79 

139,007 35 

Commercial, ... 

- 

506,621 91 

200,000 00 

364,230 79 

233,597 16 

392,049 81 

409,244 42 

Continental, 

- 

4 . 450,534 50 

1,000,000 00 

1,856,359 43 

1,062,794 97 

2 , 375,239 89 

2,157,731 25 

Eagle, .... 

- 

1,027,518 41 

300,000 OO 

96,951 93 

33,380 02 

147,288 46 

125,344 32 

Empire City, 

- 

285,599 74 

200,000 00 

59,299 !3 

52,364 91 

69,033 92 

90,419 46 

Exchange, ... 

- 

337,128 06 

200,010 00 

124,497 II 

79-737 6S 

145,465 56 

148,733 93 

Farragut, ... 

- 

413,218 31 

200,000 OO 

158,434 83 

89,609 91 

175,219 82 

185,111 00 

Firemans Trust, 

- 

222,936 77 

150,000 00 

57 ,i 6 i 24 

72,691 34 

102,850 58 

141,790 93 

1 Firemens, ... 

- 

288,637 10 

204,000 OO 

54,757 65 

60,505 86 

67,909 48 

99,240 94 

Franklin and Emporium, 

- 

375,665 30 

200,000 OO 

73,434 83 

54.503 33 

94,914 82 

110,321 26 

German American, 

- 

3,704,274 73 

I,OOO,OOO OO 

1,489,121 98 

765,909 53 

1,622,515 32 

1,392,913 20 

Germania, ... 

- 

2,566,657 51 

I,000,000 00 

1,146,075 24 

572,096 85 

1,248,233 09 

1,128,751 28 

Glens Falls, 

- 

1,212,330 28 

200,000 00 

465,971 S7 

187,291 96 

512,823 62 

415,845 78 

Globe, ... - 

- 

362,785 42 

200,000 00 

83.247 50 

75.599 3 i 

100,344 72 

132,612 15 

Greenwich, 

- 

915 . 59 1 14 

200,000 00 

414,851 86 

205,691 35 

546,898 27 

490,724 59 

Guardian, ... 

- 

255,935 44 

200,000 00 

69,74s 26 

4 U 573 13 

78,941 05 

88,210 77 

Hamilton, ... 

- 

339,608 15 

150,000 00 

96,630 13 

61,676 21 

112,138 21 

115,933 48 

Hanover, ... 

- 

2 , 559.299 16 

1,000,000 00 

1,083,045 48 

688,927 11 

1, 19°,373 79 

1,194,033 86 

Home, ... 

- 

7,208,489 07 

3,000,000 00 

2,745,662 87 

1,569,511 20 

3,086,817 22 

2,911,229 77 

Howard, ... 

- 

827,975 86 

500,000 00 

357,499 26 

268,079 35 

398,891 79 

430,944 7 i 

Irving, 

- 

248,535 67 

200,000 00 

80,756 71 

65,314 97 

89,925 67 

96,644 99 

Jefferson, ... 

- 

529,830 50 

200,010 00 

61,414 34 

19,271 58 

85,192 77 

87,794 70 

Kings County, - 

- 

407,190 59 

150,000 00 

102,688 99 

42,253 55 

126,356 73 

116,674 24 

Knickerbocker, 

- 

323,811 37 

210,000 00 

42,730 31 

35,644 16 

56,310 94 

57,995 70 

Lafayette, ... 

- 

291,325 53 

150,000 00 

149,293 88 

104,659 77 

167,352 71 

180,077 56 

Long Island, ... 

- 

482,4x9 44 

300,000 00 

157,626 19 

93,680 01 

180,047 45 

202,634 56 

Lorillard, ... 

- 

397,093 92 

300,000 00 

180,749 70 

83,124 53 

194,720 99 

163,618 38 

i Manufacturers and Builders, - 

424,205 16 

200,000 OO 

111,136 79 

74,542 48 

133.316 19 

142,211 28 

Mechanics, ... 

- 

497,437 43 

250,000 OO 

171,297 98 

78,440 31 

194,915 22 

180,699 93 

Mechanics and Traders, - 

- 

505,425 11 

200,000 OO 

206,748 99 

143.503 97 

292,212 46 

294,559 53 

Mercantile, ... 

- 

233,143 75 

200,000 00 

41,409 17 

25 , 57 i 17 

52,925 85 

62,076 89 

Merchants, - 

- 

412,171 31 

200,000 00 

114,798 59 

83,968 36 

133,482 52 

155,700 40 

Montauk, ... 

- 

337,696 50 

200,000 00 

92,876 19 

65,778 91 

109,859 08 

127,928 50 

Nassau, - - - - 

- 

395,178 11 

200,000 OO 

62,314 22 

37 , 8 i 8 64 

90,810 36 

105,951 25 

National, ... 

- 

387,181 73 

200,000 OO 

220,862 90 

184,924 56 

240,748 36 

302,863 10 

New York Bowery, 

- 

912,877 41 

300,000 OO 

332,243 57 

217,059 73 

366,551 80 

383,760 92 

New York Equitable, - 

- 

574,376 97 

210,000 00 

43,557 06 

22,125 08 

63,885 06 

63,738 08 

New York Fire, 

. 

371,871 28 

200,000 00 

208,568 52 

164,691 39 

225,757 65 

245,637 68 

Niagara, ... 

- 

1,776,836 29 

500,000 OO 

980,663 06 

579,436 21 

1,048,582 31 

1,009,541 73 

North River, - 

- 

458,275 58 

350,000 00 

22,678 01 

75 i 89 

44,435 65 

49.412 37 

Pacific, ... 

- 

720,898 47 

200,000 OO 

206,966 20 

116,312 97 

235,959 12 

235,268 08 

Park, - 

- 

333,762 72 

200,000 OO 

64,133 47 

37.217 73 

78,533 47 

92,354 21 

Peoples, ... 

- 

367,735 65 

200,000 00 

108,037 72 

50,212 96 

123,667 67 

113,871 06 

Peter Cooper, 

- 

370,072 17 

150,000 00 

25,709 23 

2,881 66 

39,516 87 

42,994 35 

Phoenix, ... 

- 

3,295,326 60 

1,000,000 00 

2,136.185 70 

937,362 43 

2,607,139 22 

2,188,703 59 

Rochester German, 

. 

504,511 54 

200,000 00 

280,648 31 

184,142 24 

302,928 63 

295.716 53 

Rutgers, ... 

- 

397.937 15 

200,000 00 

85,869 69 

44 ,S99 31 

105,121 34 

116,189 26 

Standard, - 

- 

435,321 65 

200,000 OO 

100,407 85 

88,721 98 

117,036 60 

144,79 877 

Star, .... 

. 

759,054 28 

500,000 OO 

359,210 55 

326,539 16 

392,414 16 

497,379 2 7 

Sterling, . - - . 

- 

421,921 90 

350,000 00 

93,073 07 

60,899 36 

109,654 11 

111,193 84 

Stuyvesant, 

- 

379,*73 38 

200,000 00 

67,346 82 

33.663 99 

87,462 94 

86,034 30 

Union, - 

. 

132,300 84 

100,000 00 

24,223 35 

12,764 46 

29 . 79 1 94 

30,298 62 

United States, 

- 

530,207 72 

250,000 00 

51,905 20 

10,811 56 

109,206 38 

90,289 66 

Westchester, - - - 

- 

924,010 19 

300,000 00 

572,395 56 

320,957 55 

606,396 78 

581,097 14 

Williamsburgh City, - 


1,068,647 53 

250,000 00 

506,771 23 

299,036 27 

558,639 94 

585,587 63 


* Totals of these columns appear in the previous tables. 


76 









































602 


INSURANCE. 


ABSTRACTS from statements filed in New York State Insurance Department for the year ending 

December 31, 1882. 


COMPANIES OF OTHER STATES. 

Assets. 

Attna, Connecticut, ----- 

$8,942,055 58 

American, Massachusetts, ... 

578,187 10 

American, New Jersey, .... 

1,600,730 66 

American, Pennsylvania, ... 

1,712,532 14 

American Central, Missouri, ... 

1,188,863 73 

Atlantic, Rhode Island, .... 

253.937 94 

Boatmans, Pennsjdvania, .... 

383,764 49 

Citizens, Pennsylvania, .... 

268,266 50 

Connecticut, Connecticut, ... - 

1,638,826 50 

Detroit, Michigan, ..... 

669,236 32 

Eliot, Massachusetts, .... 

405,379 99 

Equitable, Rhode Island, 

495,047 70 

Farmers, Pennsjdvania, .... 

410,131 80 

Fire Association, Pennsjdvania, 

4,152,581 13 

Fire Insurance Company, County of Phila- 


delphia, Pennsylvania, ... 

413.814 17 I 

Firemans Fund, California, ... 

1,289,062 85 

Firemens, Maryland,. 

500,279 12 

Firemens, New Jersey, .... 

1,309,583 01 

Firemens, Ohio,. 

437,611 7S 

First National, Massachusetts, 

274.090 97 

Franklin, Pennsylvania, .... 

3,086,637 08 

German, Pennsylvania, ... 

413,493 28 

Germania, New Jersey, .... 

243 U 38 54 

Girard, Pennsvlvania, .... 

1,208,644 88 

Hartford, Connecticut, .... 

4,067,976 41 

Insurance Companj' of North America, 


Pennsylvania, .... 

8 , 795,367 94 

Insurance Company of the State of Penn- 


sylvan ia, Pennsjd vania, ... 

718,208 71 

Manufacturers, Massachusetts, - ' - 

972.917 36 

Mechanics, Pennsylvania, .... 

508,898 18 

Mercantile, Ohio, ..... 

384,974 05 

Mercantile, Massachusetts, ... 

717,259 62 

Merchants, New Jersej', ... 

1,164,171 92 

Merchants, Rhode Island, ... 

428,501 26 

Michigan, Michigan, .... 

248,443 68 

National, Connecticut, .... 

1,733,281 29 

Neptune, Massachusetts, ... 

507,367 20 

Newark Fire, New Tersejq .... 

671,040 47 

New Hampshire, New Hampshire, 

915,132 37 

New Orleans, Louisiana, .... 

875,588 62 

North American, Massachusetts, - 

321,873 56 

1 Northwestern National, Wisconsin, - 

1,123,311 85 

Orient, Connecticut, .... 

1,395,404 18 

Pennsjdvania Fire, Philadelphia, Pennsyl- 


vania, ------- 

2,301,945 58 

Pennsylvania, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, - 

299,238 42 

Phcenix, Connecticut, .... 

4,336,208 31 

Amount carried forward, 

$64,363,008 24 


COMPANIES OF OTHER STATES. 


Assets. 


Amount brought forward, - 
Prescott, Massachusetts, 
Providence-Washington, Rhode Island, 
St- Paul, Minnesota, - 
Security, Connecticut, ... 
Shoe and Leather, Massachusetts, - 
Springfield, Massachusetts, 

Traders, Illinois, .... 
Union, California, .... 
Union, Pennsylvania, ... 
United Firemens, Pennsylvania, 
Washington, Massachusetts, - 

Totals, December 31, 1882, - 


,363,00s 24 
382,029 41 
1,007,364 21 
1,048,673 06 
35 U 195 81 
976,373 01 
2,395,288 27 
1,057,217 33 
1,053,882 85 
884,298 53 
736,252 07 
9 l8 .° 3 i 43 


$75,175,614 22 


FOREIGN COMPANIES. 


Total assets in 
United States. 


British America, Toronto, - 

City of London, London, ... 

Commercial Union, London, - 

Confiance, Paris, - 

Fire Insurance Association, London, 

Guardian, London, .... 

Hamburg-Bremen, Hamburg, - 
Imperial, London, - 
Lancashire, Manchester, - 
Lion, London, ..... 

Liverpool and London and Globe, Liver¬ 
pool, ....... 

London and Lancashire, Liverpool, 

London and Provincial, London, 

London Assurance Corporation, London, 

Metropole, Paris, - 

North British and Mercantile, London, - 

North German, Hamburg, - 

Northern, London, .... 

Norwich Union, Norwich, - 
Phoenix, London, ..... 

Queen, Liverpool,. 

Royal, Liverpool, ..... 
Scottish Union and National, Edinburgh, - 
Standard Fire Office, London, 

Sun Fire Office, London, - 
Transatlantic. Hamburg, ... 
United Fire Re-insurance, Manchester, 
Western, Toronto, ..... 

Totals, December 31, 1882, - 


$619,059 

12 

507,736 

87 

1,894,414 

42 

715,059 

54 

737,076 

78 

1,096,914 

14 

756,237 

OI 

796,110 

55 

1,106,317 

58 

50S,760 

93 

5,212,937 

81 

1 ,006,082 

33 

436,899 

68 

1 . 442,575 

OO 

543,880 

3 i 

2,956,992 

42 

436,110 

51 

1,021,601 

14 

762,047 

60 

1,108,227 

30 

1,445,707 

89 

3,242,746 

96 

674,537 

46 

680,365 

95 

1,095,229 

26 

369,751 

83 

854,820 

76 

602,105 

OO 

$32,630,306 

15 


Life Insurance. 

We must refer the reader to the works of others* for many historical facts 
in connection with the early development of the science of life contingencies, with 
which are prominently associated the names of DeWit, Halley, Simpson, Buffon, 
Wilson, Bernouilli, DeMoivre, and other distinguished authors. Although the Ami¬ 
cable Society of Great Britain was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1706, its 


* See e. g ., the Works of Cornelius Walford and John Francis. 



































PRESIDENT OF THE WILLIAMSBURGH CITY FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY 



















PRESIDENT OF THE MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY 

OF NEW YORK. 






INSURANCE. 


603 

methods of business for the first fifty years cannot claim to have been based on 
scientific principles. For many years each member contributed annually a fixed 
sum of ^5, without regard to age, and the total annual contributions were divided 
among the nominees of deceased members. 

The earliest guide to the expectation and duration of life was “The North¬ 
ampton Table,” published by Dr. Price in 1780, although the use of it proved in 
some respects inequitable. Of many subsequently constructed tables, only a few are 
of any present importance. The Carlisle, constructed in 1787, is still used by some 
English companies, and the Actuaries or Combined Experience, compiled in 1843 
from the experience of seventeen English companies, is at present popular in this 
country, and is the standard table for the Massachusetts State valuations. The 
reliability of this table has been verified by a subsequent tabulation of the expe¬ 
rience of companies in Great Britain. The Farr Table, No. 3, was constructed by 
its author from observations on the mortality of the entire population of England, 
but it does not represent the mortality among insured lives. The American 
Experience Table, prepared with great skill by Mr. Sheppard Homans from the 
mortality experience of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York during 
a period of years, is at present the legal basis of State Department valuations 
in New York and several other States. 

The limits of this paper will admit but a passing reference to foreign life insur¬ 
ance. In 1882 there were one hundred and seven life companies in Great Britain 
with accumulated assets of ^153,582,169. Their aggregate income was ^20,623,509, 
and their expenditures ^15,976,086. The latter item includes ^10,506,664 in payment 
of claims on policies, ^2,743,096 for “management and expenses,” and ,£500,831 in 
“dividends and bonuses to share-holders.” Fifty-seven of the companies report fifty- 
six thousand five hundred and forty-three new policies for 1882, representing a risk 
of ,£24,644,022.* 

The history of life insurance in this country prior to 1840 is not of 
sufficient importance to demand more than brief attention. The Pennsylvania Com¬ 
pany for insurances upon lives and granting annuities, was organized in Philadel¬ 
phia in 1812, and did no other business till 1836, when it was empowered to 
combine therewith a guardianship and trust business. This company now has less 
than one hundred life policies in force. The Massachusetts General Hospital Life 
Insurance Company was organized in 1818, with a monopoly of the business in 
Massachusetts, so long as it should pay one-third of its annual profits for the benefit 
of the hospital. No other life company did business in Massachusetts until the 
New England Mutual entered the field in 1844. The New York Life and Trust 


* These figures are from Layton’s “British Life Insurance Chart.’’ 




604 


INSURANCE. 


Company, incorporated in 1830, issued only eighteen hundred policies in nine years, 
and now has less than $200,000 insurance in force. None of the other companies 
incorporated before 1840, having the privilege of insuring lives, now survive, except 
a few in Philadelphia, that do almost exclusively a trust and banking business. 

In April, 1840, the New York State Legislature passed an act* which has since 
been placed in the statute-books of nearly all the States. By this act the benefit 
of a policy on her husband’s life may be secured to the wife, freed from the claims 
of his creditors. 

The active development of the business of life insurance in this country may 
properly be said to date from the incorporation of the Mutual Life Insurance Com¬ 
pany of New York, in 1842. No more striking index of this development can be 
found than the contrast between the seven hundred and ninety-six policies written, 
and $90,000 received in premiums by this company during its first nineteen months, 
and the ten thousand eight hundred and seventy policies written, and $12,845,592 

received in premiums by it in the year 1882. The New York Life Insurance 

Company first issued life policies in 1845, under the name of the Nautilus Insur¬ 
ance Company, chartered in 1841, and is to-day second only to the Mutual in age, 
and in the magnitude of its assets. This company and the Mutual are the only 
companies organized in this State on a purely mutual basis. In the year 1845, 

were organized the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company, of Newark, New 

Jersey; the State Mutual, of Worcester, Massachusetts, and the Connecticut Mutual 
Life Insurance Company, of Hartford, Connecticut. 

The Penn Mutual, of Philadelphia, organized in 1847, an d the National, of Ver¬ 
mont, with the Union Mutual, of Maine, in 1848, complete the list of existing life 
companies incorporated before the year 1850. The success of the earlier com¬ 
panies stimulated the formation of many new ones, more than twenty of which 
were organized between 1845 and 1851. None of these, however, were incorporated 
in New York State. The United States Life, and the Manhattan Life, were both 
incorporated in the year 1850. 

By an act passed in 1851, known as the New York Deposit Law, all life com¬ 
panies doing business in New York were required to deposit, within ten months, 
$100,000 with the Comptroller; but this law was so modified in 1853 as to permit 
companies to make the deposit in their own States. All existing companies incor¬ 
porated in this State since that date have, therefore, a capital stock of at least 
$100,000, the privileges of the stockholders being defined in the respective charters. 
From such official returns as are available, it appears that in 1854 seventeen New 


* Chapter 80, Laws of 1840, amended by chapter 187, Laws of 1858, chapter 70, Laws of 1862, chapter 656, Laws 
of 1866, chapter 277, Laws of 1870, chapter 821, Laws of 1873, and chapter 248, Laws of 1879. 





PRESIDENT OF THE NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY 







INSURANCE. 


605 


York and New England companies had assets aggregating $13,174,735, insuring 
about $135,000,000. Premium receipts for that year amounted to $3,024,125, and 
losses to $1,308,040, with a ratio for expenses of management of about thirteen per 
cent. 

An interesting discussion commenced at this time as to the relative merits of 
the all-cash and part-note plans of collecting premiums. Opinions seem to have 

been pretty equally divided, but all the New York companies, with one exception, 

and most of those of other States are now issuing policies only on the all-cash plan. 

The State of Massachusetts, in 1855, was the fi rst to organize a separate depart¬ 
ment for the supervision of insurance interests; and in first securing for State 
departments just standards for determining the financial condition of life companies, 
Elizur Wright of Boston rendered valuable services. The development of scientific 
methods in the conduct of the business of the companies, proceeded rapidly from 
this time. 

At the first convention of life companies, held in New York in the month 

of May, 1859. expression was given to the dissatisfaction, which still exists, with 
the lack of just and uniform legislation in the several States, and with the tend¬ 
ency to over-tax the companies. Proper investments, interest-rates, and the need 

of vital statistics, also received due consideration. The combined reports to the 

convention at its second meeting, in i860, showed $180,000,000 insurance in force 
on about sixty thousand lives, $7,000,000 annual premiums, and $22,000,000 of assets. 
Of fifteen companies organized during the nine years preceding i860, only five still 
survive; the Berkshire in Massachusetts, the Httna and the Phoenix in Connecticut, 
the Northwestern in Wisconsin, and the Equitable in New York. 

Since i860, departmental supervision has been an important factor in affecting 
the rise or downfall of life insurance companies, and in the main it is believed 

to have been for the best interests of the insuring community. How many irre¬ 
sponsible concerns might have flourished in this country but for the wise execution 
of rigid laws, we can only conjecture from the disgraceful history of a long period 
of freedom from restraint in Great Britain. The first company to succumb to the 
vigilance of Massachusetts was the International of London, in 1859; an d the next 

year, the American Mutual of New Haven — now in a receiver’s hands — was expelled 

from New York. Six foreign companies were doing a life business in New York 
State in i860; but most of these are no longer soliciting new business, and the 
field is left substantially to home companies. On the other hand, some of our 
own companies have established agencies ' in foreign countries and are securing a 
large and profitable share of business. 

All companies in the United States, in addition to the annual filing of finan¬ 
cial reports, are obliged to submit to one or more State departments, schedules 


6 o6 


INSURANCE. 


giving a sufficient abstract of each policy in force, to enable the Superintendent 
to determine, by an annual valuation, the policy reserve liability on the 31st of 
December in each year. New York and many other States use for this purpose 
the American Experience Table and four and a half per cent interest; while others 
follow the example of Massachusetts, and value upon the Combined Experience 
Table with four per cent interest. 

During the years of the war, the life insurance companies of the country 
proved an important support to the National Government, both by subscribing for 
many millions of its bonds, and by accepting the war-risk on policy-holders at a 
slight extra rate of premium. The condition of the life insurance interests during 
this period, is shown in a subsequent comparative table. Between i860 and 1865, 
we find the names of only five new companies that are now in the field — the Ger¬ 
mania, the Home, and the Washington, of this State, the John Hancock, of Boston, 
and the Travelers, of Hartford. 

But the success of existing corporations, the enormous development of the 
resources of the country, and the great plethora of currency, stimulated the forma¬ 
tion of new companies to an extraordinary extent. The number authorized to do 
business in New York State rose rapidly from eighteen in 1862, to seventy-one in 
1870. Of the latter number forty-one were home companies, and thirty were from 
other States. From sixty-five thousand two hundred and fifty-two policies in force in 
1862, insuring $183,962,577, the number had increased, in 1870, to seven hundred 
and forty-seven thousand eight hundred and seven, insuring $2,023,884,955; and in 
the same period the combined assets had increased from $30,123,331, to $269,520,440. 
This stupendous growth — unparalleled in the history of any other institution — 
amazed alike the people of this and foreign countries. The greatest increase in 
one year was in 1868, when the companies doing business in New York State 
increased the net number of their policies one hundred and thirty-six thousand four 
hundred and fifty-four, and the net amount at risk $367,254,909. But the sequel 
showed that this apparent strength had been in many cases improvidently secured. 
Extravagant expenditures weakened the ability of many of the younger companies 
to maintain the required legal reserve, and to meet the reaction which naturally 
followed excessive competition, and the check to the general prosperity of the 
country caused by undue inflation and speculation. The first failure came in 1870; 
and of twenty-six life companies incorporated in New York between 1862 and 1869, 
inclusive, only three — the Brooklyn, the Homoeopathic, and the Metropolitan—are 
still living in 1883. It is needless to recount the special causes which terminated 
the existence of those that are gone. Nearly all were founded with good inten¬ 
tions, and many retired without serious loss to policy-holders, while others went 
down to dishonored graves. But if de mortuis nil nisi bonum should be said, 




VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY. 








INSURANCE. 


607 

then must our pen be raised, for from their fitful lives there was but little public 
gain.* Superintendent Fairman, in the Report of 1881, says: “More companies 
were started than the business demanded, and, as a matter of course, the weaker 
went to the wall. Some companies were managed imprudently, some dishonestly, 
and some on false principles.” 

Perhaps no more important legacy has been left us of this period in the 
history of life insurance than the evidence, not only of the abuses often accom¬ 
panying the re-insurance and amalgamation of companies, but also of their ruinous 
effect on the welfare of the re-insuring company. The evil was recognized in the 
New York Reports of 1873 an d 1874, but no substantial remedy was proposed. 
To-day not a single New York company exists, that assumed the liabilities of any 
apparently weaker institutions. In May, 1877, the Legislature of New York prohib¬ 
ited the re-insurance of any policy without the consent of the owner, but allowed 
a receiver to re-insure, either in whole or pro rata , in any New York company, with 
consent of the Attorney-General and Superintendent of the Insurance Department. 
Chapter 161, Laws of 1879, provides the means of compulsory dissolution through 
the Attorney-General. 

It is gratifying to turn to the records of the life insurance business of to-day, 
and note how steadily the combined assets and business of the existing companies 
have increased. In insurance, as in all other branches of corporate business, the 
tendency seems to be to accumulate power in the hands of the few. Age, mag¬ 
nitude, and financial strength naturally attract the public, thus verifying anew that 
“ whomsoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance ; but 
whomsoever hath not, from him shall be taken away, even that he hath.” By 
reference to an annexed table, it will be seen that the twelve New York com¬ 
panies, on December 31, 1882, had assets amounting to $237,809,049, against 

$133,119,187 possessed by the forty-one companies of the same State in 1870. 

A “Chamber of Life Insurance” was formed in 1866, but failing to secure the 
harmonious cooperation of all the companies, it held its last meeting in 1868. 
A second Chamber was organized in 1873 to promote common interests, including 
especially the adoption of uniform application and policy forms, and the resistance 
of unfriendly and too often corrupt legislation; to secure uniform State laws and 
taxation; and to tabulate the mortality experience of the several companies. The 
latter purpose resulted, in 1881, in the publication under the charge of Mr. Meech, 
of the valuable statistical work entitled, “System and Tables of Life Insurance, 

. from the experience and records of thirty American Life Offices.” The 

second Chamber ceased to hold meetings in 1877. 

*A detailed list of retired life insurance companies may be found in the Spectator Year Book for 1882, and the 
New York Report of 1882. 




6oS 


INSURANCE. 


The Registered Policy Act of 1867" provides for the issuing of a duplicate 
of each registered policy, to be retained by the Department, both policies to be 
certified by the Superintendent as secured by the deposit of securities in his hands. 
The company is obliged always to keep securities in the Department, equal in value 
to the total reserve values of all its registered policies. While the State assumes 
no liability beyond the safe-keeping of these securities, the registered policy-holders, 
in case of the failure of the company, are almost certain to receive a larger return 
than other policy-holders. Of eight companies doing a registry business in 1872 
seven have failed, and in nearly every case the non-registered policy-holders have 
received very much smaller dividends than the more fortunate owners of registered 
policies. 

The New York Life Insurance Company was the first to issue non-forfeiture 
policies — a practice which has become so popular that, since i860, provisions have 
been adopted by all companies for the equitable consideration of the interests of 
policy-holders who retire before the maturity of their contracts. Massachusetts and 
New York define by law the rights of the insured who cease to pay premiums 
before the expiration of the time stipulated in their policies; and companies of all 
the States now enable policy-holders, either by extended insurance, paid-up policies, 
or cash purchases, to withdraw without an entire sacrifice of the reserve values of 
their policies, f 

It would take volumes instead of pages to recount all that there is of interest 
in the history of life insurance in the United States. Like all great institutions 
its development has been attended with mistakes. Its successful growth is undoubt¬ 
edly due to the imperative need of those living in the midst of a complex civili¬ 
zation for such protection as only insurance can afford, and to the completeness 
with which this need has been met by skilful management and intelligent foresight. 
To the thoughtful mind, as evidence of good done, no words can be so eloquent or 
so suggestive as the statistical records of the transactions of existing American life 
insurance companies from their organization to January 1, 1882. Summaries furnished 
by the companies within the past year show the following impressive results: J 

(1) Premiums paid by policy-holders to January 1, 1882, - - $1, 154, 739, 618 

(2) Amounts paid to policy-holders to January 1, 1882, - - 823, 897, 319 

(3) Assets of all the companies January 1, 1882, - 468, 541, 788 

(4) Amount of interest, rents, etc., received by all the companies 

in excess of all expenses of management, - - - 137, 699, 489 


* Chapter 708, Laws of 1867, amended by chapter 902, Laws of 1869, and chapter 168, Laws of 1880. The adoption 
of this plan is optional with the companies, and at the present time only one company has a registered policy deposit. 
+ The non-forfeiture rules of each company and the State laws are given in “ Spectator Year Book,” 1882, page 178. 
t Chicago Tribune. 





INSURANCE. 


609 


Thus it appears that the payments to policy-holders and the assets held to 
their credit, after paying all expenses, actually exceed the gross premiums paid, by 
$137,699,489. It will also be noticed that the assets of these companies, on the 
1st of January, 1882, exceeded the combined circulation of all the National banks 
by $109,555,788, and equalled the capital stock of all the banks within $868,413. 

The following tables show: first, the relative condition, at intervals of two 
years, of the companies doing business in New York State, from i860 to 1882, 
inclusive; and second, the transactions of existing companies during the year 1882 
and their condition on January 1, 1883 : 

TABLE showing the combined business, at intervals of two years, of all life insurance companies doing busi¬ 
ness in New York State, from 1862 to 1882, inclusive. 







New York 

State Companies. 




On December 31. 

I 

Number of 
companies. 

Number of 
policies in 
force. 

Amount of policies in 
force. 

Gross assets. 

Gross liabilities except 
capital. 

Surplus as regards 
policy-holders. 

i860. 



11 

27,140 

$85,371,499 67 

$13,745,559 82 

$8,804,076 

49 

$4,941,483 33 

1862, 


- 

13 

35.453 

101,474,077 46 

17,457,909 5S 

14,094,400 

15 

3,363,509 43 

1S64, 

- 

- 

17 

70,429 

194,819,324 45 

26,074,191 01 

18,060,140 

52 

8,014,050 49 

1866, 


- 

24 

151,662 

437,556,780 47 

47,217,087 8l 

34,735,358 

63 

12,481,729 18 

1868. 

- 

- 

34 

270,531 

795,509,710 45 

89,063,961 45 

70,913,813 

76 

18,150,147 60 

1870, 


- 

41 

377,437 

1,039,662,517 00 

133,119,187 48 

113,445,941 

60 

19,673,245 85 

1872, 

- 

- 

32 

386,690 

1,051,970,818 00 

166,277,986 OO 

145,660,891 

98 

20,617,094 02 

1874. 


- 

23 

372,931 

1,002,994,598 00 

195,336,920 95 

167,912,004 

39 

27,424,916 56 

1876. 

- 

- 

17 

313,026 

857,036,537 00 

200,502,681 31 

172,015,097 

15 

28,487,584 16 

1878, 


- 

15 

275,718 

753,094,123 00 

206,552,630 84 

174,793,338 

73 

31,759,292 11 

1880, 

- 

- 

12 

273,037 

762,734,001 00 

214,647,574 03 

177,357,829 

54 

37,289,744 49 

1882, 


- 

12 

311,179 

895,649,015 00 

237,809,049 OO 

197,432,109 

OO 

40,366,939 00 






Companies of other States. 




1S60, 

- 

- 

6 

28,906 

$78,331,955 64 

$10,370,127 03 

$8,355,796 

97 

$2,014,330 06 

1862, 


- 

5 

29,799 

82,488,499 97 

12,665,422 17 

9,697,058 

55 

2,968,363 62 

1864, 

- 

- 

IO 

76,300 

200,883,730 32 

22,953,106 39 

16,658,090 

14 

6,295,016 25 

1866, 


- 

15 

153,728 

427,549.096 77 

44,369,940 16 

30,853,164 

13 

13,516,776 03 

1868, 

- 

- 

21 

267,063 

733,474,974 87 

86,198,368 26 

64,893,144 

43 

21,305,223 83 

1870, 


- 

30 

370,370 

984,222,438 00 

136,401,253 28 

107,586,204 

62 

28,815,048 66 

1872, 

- 

- 

27 

417,754 

1,062,771,773 00 

168,890,556 70 

142,666,214 

So 

26,224,341 90 

1874, 


- 

27 

426.603 

994,241,632 00 

191,944,975 86 

160,480,547 

31 

31,464,428 55 

1876, 

- 

' - 

21 

393053 

878,958,653 00 

206,903,651 22 

174,264,683 

31 

32,638,967 91 

1878, 


- 

19 

337,125 

727,827,100 00 

197,526,513 91 

164,792,287 

57 

32,734,226 34 

1880, 

- 

- 

18 

335,644 

713,260,671 00 

203,303,435 28 

169,031,510 

48 

34,271,924 So 

1882, 


- 

17 

350,279 

751,994,913 00 

211,819,283 00 

175,253,173 

00 

36,566,338 00 





Companies of this and other States Combined. 



i860, 

- 

- 

17 

56,046 

$163,703,455 3i 

$24,115,686 85 

$17,159,873 

46 

$6,955,813 39 

1862, 

♦ 

- 

18 

65,252 

183,962,577 43 

30,123,331 75 

23,791,458 

70 

6,331,873 05 

1864, 

- 

- 

27 

146,729 

395,703,054 77 

49,027,297 40 

34,718,230 

66 

14,309,066 74 

1866, 


- 

39 

305,39° 

865,105,877 24 

91,587,027 97 

65,588,522 

76 

25,998,505 21 

1868, 

- 

- 

55 

537,594 

1,528,984,685 32 

175,262.329 71 

135,806,958 

19 

39.455.371 52 

1870, 


- 

71 

747,807 

2,023,884,955 00 

269,520,440 76 

221,032,146 

22 

48,488,294 54 

1872, 

- 

- 

59 

804,444 

2,114,742,591 00 

335.i6S.542 70 

288,327,106 

78 

46,841,435 92 

I874, 


- 

50 

799,534 

1,997,236,230 00 

387,281,896 81 

328,392,551 

70 

58,889,345 11 

1876, 

- 

- 

38 

706,179 

1,735,995,190 00 

407,406,332 53 

346,279,780 

46 

61,126,552 07 

1878, 


- 

34 

612,843 

1,480,921,223 00 

404,079,144 75 

339,585,626 

30 

64,493,518 45 

1880, 

- 

- 

30 

608,681 

1,475,995,172 00 

417.951,009 31 

346,389,340 

02 

71,561,669 29 

1882, 



29 

661,458 

1,647,643,928 00 

449,628,332 00 

372,685,282 

OO 

76,933,277 00 


To the above might be added, for 1882, as given on page 612, five hundred 
and ninety-five thousand five hundred and sixteen “ Industrial ” policies, insuring 
$66,010,970. The gross amount insured exceeds the entire National debt, after 
deducting the cash in the Treasury. 

77 





























STATISTICS for 1882 , of all Life Insurance Companies reporting to the New York State Insurance Department. 


6lO 


INSURANCE. 


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STATISTICS for 1882 , of all Life Insurance Companies reporting to the New York State Insurance Department. 




S 


INSURANCE. 


611 


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See following page for number and amount of Industrial policies. 




























































































INSURANCE. 


612 


The above tables do not include the number of “ Industrial ” policies, and the 
amounts insured under them. These policies are issued for comparatively small sums 
on the lives of both children and adults, chiefly of the poorer classes, and the weekly 
premiums, from five cents upward, are collected by direct personal application ; while 
the claims are paid immediately upon proof of death. The amount of this class 
of business in lorce January 1, 1883, was as follows: 


NAME OF COMPANY. 

Number of poli¬ 
cies in force. 

Amount insured. 

Germania Life Insurance Company, New York, - -- -- -- -- 

Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, New York, -------- 

John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, Boston, ------- 

Prudential Insurance Company of America, New Jersey, ------- 

Totals, - 

9,689 

335.789 

53.951 

196,087 

$1,049,914 

34.679,307 

14.542,776 

15.738.973 

595.516 

$66,010,970 


The Prudential of London commenced the industrial business in 1854, and on 
January 1. 1883, it had five million four hundred and nine thousand two hundred 
and ninety-three policies in force, and a premium income in 1882 of ,£2,126,022. 
The claims paid in 1882 amounted to ,£773,813, and all other expenditures to 
,£1,057,150. The assets on January 1, 1883, were ,£2,141,497. 


Marine Insurance. 

The precise date of the first contracts for indemnity against the perils of 
navigation has been a question giving rise to much controversy. Prior to the 
fifteenth century, owners of vessels and shippers had from remote ages protected 
themselves by loans on bottomry and respondentia, and shippers frequently reduced 
the risk by dividing their shipments between different vessels. Marine underwriting 
was certainly practiced in the fifteenth century in Barcelona, and was extensively 
in use in the sixteenth century in Italy and the Netherlands. The Lombards 
were renowned in London for their Marine policies in the early part of the 
seventeenth century. The first English statute on the subject was in 1601. 

Efforts in Holland in 1629, and in England in 1719, to establish a company 
to transact the business of Marine Insurance met with great opposition from the 
individual underwriters and were unsuccessful; but in 1720 there occurred a serious 
deficiency in the civil list, and the English ministry eagerly grasped the offer of 
,£300,000 from two companies, “ The Royal Exchange ” and “ The London Assur¬ 
ance, for the privilege, to the exclusion of all other companies, of “ insuring ships 
and goods at sea or going to sea and lending money upon bottomry.” This 
monopoly actually existed until 1824; but personal underwriting still continued and 
















cJ 2). 


PRESIDENT OF THE ATLANTIC MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY 















INSURANCE. 


613 


is best known throughout the world by the policies taken at Lloyd’s coffee-house, 
which became the head-quarters of marine underwriting.* 

Although prior to 1800, some marine underwriting by individuals was done in 
Philadelphia and New York, merchants and ship-owners depended principally upon 
the London offices. The Union Mutual was chartered in 1804, in Philadelphia, for 
taking marine and inland risks, and from this time the rapidly increasing number 
of marine insurance cases in the American courts shows the growth of the business 
and the efforts to conduct it on approved principles. 

By the opening of the Erie canal the lakes became a great highway of trade 
between the East and the West, and there resulted an immense increase in the busi¬ 
ness of insuring inland risks. But owing to unwise competition there was great 
neglect of proper surveys of vessels; and the premiums accepted bore no reason¬ 
able proportion to the losses incurred. Although only one thousand nine hundred 
and ten vessels were afloat in 1854, the startling fact was developed that between 
1848 and 1853 the number of losses had amounted to one thousand five hundred 
and sixty. The “Lake Underwriters’ Association” was formed in 1855 and many 
reforms were instituted, but the demoralization due to an influx of new companies 
could not be wholly checked, and many of the weaker organizations were obliged 
to retire. Lake underwriting from the commencement of the civil war to 1868, 
and indeed for many subsequent years, did not, as a whole, result in profit to the 
companies. The first Report of the New York Department, in i860, names four¬ 
teen home marine companies besides the fire companies accepting navigation risks. 

The International Tribunal of Arbitration, held in Geneva, in 1872, awarded 
the sum of $15,500,000 to be paid by Great Britain for the loss of one hundred 
and twenty-seven vessels owned by citizens of the United States, and destroyed by 
the Confederate steamers “Alabama,” “ Llorida ” and “Shenandoah.” The Tribunal 
awarded this sum solely as the value of ships and cargoes directly destroyed by 
the three cruisers and their tenders. This sum was promptly paid to the United 
States, and by act of Congress, June 23, 1874, a commission was created to deter¬ 
mine all claims except those of underwriters. The rights of these latter were 
virtually ignored by a provision of the act that “No claim shall be allowed in 
behalf of an insurer—individual or corporate — unless his losses on war risks 
exceeded the sum of his premiums on war risks during the rebellion.” After 
paying all the losses of uninsured claimants there now remain in the hands of 
the government nearly $10,000,000 not yet apportioned. The constant efforts of the 
marine companies to secure reimbursement from this fund for their losses incurred 
through these three cruisers, aggregating about $5,000,000, have thus far proved 


*See "The History of Lloyd’s and of Marine Insurance in Great Britain,” by F. Martin, London, 1876 . 







614 


INSURANCE. 


unavailing, although such losses were included in the gross sum awarded to the 
United States by the Geneva Tribunal. Finally, on March 29, 1883, the Mer¬ 
chants’ Mutual Insurance Company, of Baltimore, initiated proceedings in the Court 
of Claims against the United States for losses amounting to $28,400. Similar 

claims were filed the following day by many other companies. If the Court of 
Claims declares that it has no jurisdiction of these cases, an appeal will doubtless 

be taken to the United States Supreme Co.urt. The claims of the stock companies 

amount to $1,787,311, and those of the mutual companies to $3,078,521. Upon 
recovery, the latter amount is, in New York State, by legislative enactment, payable 
to the premium payers who suffered through the payment of the original losses." 

Owing to peculiar dangers of the business, which have already been indicated, 
the field of marine underwriting has not been an encouraging one for the for¬ 
mation of new companies. The fourteen New York companies reporting to the 
Department in i860 had fallen off to six in . 1882. The following table shows 
the business of the New York companies in i860, 1865, 1870, 1875, 1880 and 1882, 
as to capital stock, gross assets, premiums received and losses paid : 


YEAR. 

Number of 
companies. 

Capital stock. 

Gross assets. 

Premiums re¬ 
ceived. 

Losses paid. 

i860, .. 

14 


$21,867,198 

*$18,289,503 

- 

1865,. 

II 

$1,976,700 

26,925,769 

*11,096,057 

+S 7,955 257 

1870, . 

9 

3,151,400 

24,502,154 

*8,883,235 

+ 4 , 4 W. 343 

1S75,.. 

9 

1,662,080 

24,888,472 

*9,101,701 

f4,S20,772 

1880, . 

6 

I,162,080 

16,652,678 

*5,688,368 

{3.807,238 

1882, ---- .... 

6 

1,162,080 

16,648,182 

5,050,119 

2.877,095 


* Includes small amount of fire premiums. t Includes small amount of fire losses. 


The most complete available statistics for the United States, compiled from 
the reports of ten stock and seven mutual marine insurance companies for 1881, 
are as follows : 



Ten stock 
companies. 

Seven mutual 
companies. 

Assets December 31, 1881, ... 

Premiums received in 1881,.-. 

Losses paid in 1881, ... 

Total income in 1881, - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 

Total expenditures in 1881, .. 

Risks in force December 31, 1881.. 

Capital stock, .-- - .. 

$5,375,807 

2,175,717 

2,121,418 

2,345,979 

2,058,244 

28,574,635 

2,052,080 

$17,967,720 

5,165,451 

3.470,729 

6,024,774 

5,577,483 

146,560,061 


The following table is compiled from reports filed in the Insurance Depart¬ 
ment for the year ending December 31, 1882, by all marine insurance companies 
of the United States transacting business in New York State : 


*For interesting reviews of the proceedings of the Geneva Tribunal and the claims against the fund, see “The 
Geneva Award,” by Charles B. Moore, New York, 1873; Report to Trustees of “Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company,” 
New York, 1877; Address of J. D. Jones, President, to those who paid premiums to the compan)', from 1862 to 1865, 
New York, 1881; “The United States Government and War Premiums,” by J. C. Coale, Baltimore, 1882. 







































INSURANCE. 


615 


COMPANIES OF NEW YORK STATE. 

Commenced 

business. 

Assets. 

Capital stock. 

Total liabilities ex¬ 
cept scrip not pay¬ 
able and capital 
stock. 

Scrip not order¬ 
ed redeemed. 

Atlantic Mutual,. 

Commercial Mutual, 

Great Western,. 

New York Mutual,. 

Orient Mutual,. 

Sun Mutual,. 

Totals, ......... 

COMPANIES OF OTHER STATES. 

Boston Marine, Massachusetts,. 

Boylston Mutual, Massachusetts, .... 
China Mutual, Massachusetts ..... 

Totals, . 

1842 

1842 

1855 

1851 

1854 

1841 

$12,890,556 

705,533 

955,491 

687,699 

898,196 

510,707 

$662,080 

500,000 

$4,228,679 

132,026 

239.831 

132,026 

109,523 

53,371 

$6,956,420 
544 , 9 IG 

544,794 
593,203 

$16,648,182 

$1,162,080 

$4,905,456 

$8,639,327 

1874 

1873 

1853 

$2,313,494 

980,720 

950,536 

$1,000,000 
557,200 

$874,530 

219,071 

276,882 

$78,410 

653,573 

$ 4 , 244,750 

$1,557,200 

$1,370,483 

$731,983 


COMPANIES OF NEW YORK STATE. 

Marine premi¬ 
ums received. 

Marine losses 
paid. 

Total income. 

Total expendi¬ 
tures. 

Marine risks in 
force. 

Atlantic Mutual,. 

Commercial Mutual, ....... 

Great Western,. 

New York Mutual, - 

Orient Mutual, ........ 

Sun Mutual, .. 

$3,813,656 

190,573 

460,032 

184,747 

289,639 

111,471 

$1,889,183 

158,362 

329,144 

175,891 

257,618 

66,897 

$4,403,137 

231,476 

487,258 

209,827 

333,837 

127,450 

$2,759,644 

272,413 

432,089 

234,382 

337,750 

136,852 

$97,680,934 

8,944,469 

6,046,756 

2,897,541 

4,768,248 

1 , 552,552 

Totals, - 

COMPANIES OF OTHER STATES. 

Boston Marine, . .. 

Boylston Mutual, 

China Mutual, 

$5,050,119 

$2,877,095 

$ 5 , 792,985 

$4,173,130 

$121,890,500 

$ 1 , 173,001 

190,647 

349,435 

$940,191 

152,910 

282,009 

$1,261,068 

419,523 

386,033 

$1,256,552 

347,018 

476,384 

$9,834,110 

935,723 

8,934,660 

Totals, - 

$1,713,083 

$1,375,110 

$2,066,624 

$2,079,954 

$19,704,493 


The names of all foreign marine insurance companies doing business in New 
\ ork State, and statistics combined from their annual reports for the year ending 
December 31, 1882, are as follows: 

Names of Companies —British and Foreign Marine, Liverpool; General Marine, 
Dresden; Sea, Liverpool; Swiss Lloyd Transport, Zurich; Switzerland Marine, 
Zurich ; Thames and Mersey Marine, Liverpool ; Union Marine, Liverpool. 

Total combined stock , assets, liabilities. — Gross assets, 1881, $15,709,044; gross 
liabilities, 1881, $5,021,567 ; capital stock, 1881, $3,646,200. 

In United States only — Assets, December 31, 1882, $2,360,925; liabilities, 
December 31, 1882, $447,185; income, December 31, 1882, $1,837,497 ; expen¬ 
ditures, December 31, 1882, $818,415. 


Additional Forms of Insurance. 

During the thirteenth century there prevailed in England a species of “insur¬ 
ance wagers ” entered by a large number of apparently reputable offices, including 
the underwriters, at Lloyd’s coffee-house. Thus in 1768 the London Chronicle 






























































6i6 


INSURANCE. 


reports policies offered “on John Wilkes’ life for one year, now doing at five 
per cent;” on the success of certain candidates for election to Parliament, “twenty 
to seventy guineas per cent;” “on two of the first peers of England losing their 
heads, at ten shillings and six pence per cent;” and “on the dissolution of the 
present Parliament within one year, at five guineas per cent.” Such gambling 
transactions were finally suppressed by the important act passed in the fourteenth 
year of the reign of George III, which prohibited all insurance of a mere gaming 
and wagering character, or where the person interested had not a legal insurable 
interest. 

But, besides those already mentioned, there are still many legitimate fields for 
insurance, which are cultivated by active and thriving companies. 

The following table shows the companies authorized to transact insurance 
business other than Fire, Life or Marine, in New York State, and statistics from 


their last published Reports: 


From reports published in 1882. 

Fidelity and 
Casualty Com¬ 
pany, New 
York; com¬ 
menced 1876. 

>1 etropolitan 
Plate Glass 
Insurance Com¬ 
pany, New 
York ; com¬ 
menced 1874. 

Accident Insur¬ 
ance Company 
of North Amer¬ 
ica, Canada ; 
commenced 
1874. 

Guarantee 
Company of 
North Amer¬ 
ica, Canada; 
commenced 
1872. 

Hartford Steam 
Boiler Inspec¬ 
tion and Insur¬ 
ance Company; 
commenced 
1866. 

Travelers’ In¬ 
surance Com¬ 
pany, Hartiord; 
commenced 
1864. 

Capital stock, ...... 

Gross assets available, .... 

Unpaid losses, December 31, 1881, 

Total liabilities except capital, 

Cash premiums received in 1S81: 

for fidelity risks, ----- 
for plate glass risks ... 

for steam boiler risks,* ... 

for personal accident risks. 

All other income in 1881, .... 

$250,000 

372,982 

8,140 

111,422 

$100,000 

160,655 

1,036 

40,927 

$152,300 
228,096 

1,000 

23.133 

$292,580 

348,623 

1,337 

37,187 

$200, OOO 
376,279 

11,997 

119,020 

$600,000 

1,668,374 
171,900 
588,696 

$17,335 

31,872 

22,363 

107.054 

7.679 

$73,976 

5,637 

$51,340 

2,663 

$76,525 

. 

9,538 

$232,747 

19,679 

$1,684,750 

76,880 

Total income in 1881, ... 

Cash paid for losses in 1881: 

on fidelity risks,. 

on plate glass risks, - 

on steam boiler risks, ... - 

on personal accident risks, 

All other expenditures in 1881, ... 

$186,303 

$79,613 

$54,003 

$86,063 

$252,426 

$1,761,530 

$1,155 

15.639 

2,088 

47,889 

103,680 

$25,206 

46,968 

$12,246 

32,026 

$18,021 

63,829 

$13,124 

202,353 

$714,088 

830,508 

Total expenditures in 1881, 

Risks in force December 31, 1881: 

fidelity risks,. 

plate glass risks, .... 

steam boiler risks, - 

personal accident risks, ... 

f $170,451 

$72,174 

$44,272 

$81,850 

t $215,477 

$1,544,516 

$2,342,840 
1,015,540 
2,231,108 
11,357,173 

$2,414,505 

$5,666,370 

$S,406,625 

$20,106,732 

$I53,I3S,93 


* Includes boiler inspection charges. t Includes expenses for boiler inspections. 


The relative importance of each interest, as measured by the amount of risks 
in force, appears to be as follows: personal accident risks, $170,162,475; steam 
boiler risks, $22,337,840; fidelity risks, $10,749,465 ; plate glass risks, $3,440,045. 

New \ ork laws" authorize the formation of mutual insurance companies for 
the recovery of stolen horses, cattle and sheep, and the apprehension of the 


*Laws of 1859. chapter 168. 


























































INSURANCE. 


617 

thieves; and for insurance against the loss of live stock by theft. All joint- 
stock fire insurance companies are authorized to insure against loss or damage 
by lightning.* The general casualty insurance law, in addition to accident, fidelity 
and live stock insurances, provides for the incorporation of companies to insure 
“against loss, damage or liability arising from any unknown or contingent event 
whatever, which may be the subject of legal insurance, except the perils and risks 
included within the department of fire, marine and life insurance.” f 

A most important part of insurance among the working classes of Great 
Britain is transacted through the medium of the Friendly Societies. From a 
late review $ of the annual report of the “ Chief Registrar,” it appears that there 
were fifteen thousand three hundred and seventy-nine registered Friendly Societies 
and branches in England and Wales, of which twelve thousand three hundred 
had made the usual annual returns, showing an aggregate membership of four 
million six hundred and seventy-two thousand one hundred and seventy-five, and 
total accumulated funds amounting to £\ 2,148,609. § These figures do not include 
the seven industrial insurance companies of which the Prudential, heretofore alluded 
to, is by far the most prominent. As a means of reducing the great numbers 
of the pauper class in Great Britain, National compulsory insurance has been 
frequently urged, but the scheme is so full of difficulties that its practicability 

must still be considered an open question. || 

The co-operative or assessment companies, which have, within three years past, 
rapidly increased in number in the United States, are unlike either the Friendly 
Societies or Industrial Assurance companies of England. Both of these collect 

stipulated weekly or monthly payments and pay a stipulated benefit sum, while 
co-operative companies of this country, as a rule, only make assessments on 

members contingent upon the number of deaths actually occurring, and the amount 
payable to the beneficiary under a death-claim is contingent on the amount of 
assessments that may be paid in by the remaining members. Expenses of man¬ 
agement are provided for by an entrance fee and a specified sum for annual dues, 
independent of the assessments that may be required by death-claims. 

One hundred and fifty co-operative companies reported to the New York 

Insurance Department in 1882, showing an aggregate membership of three hun¬ 
dred and twenty-five thousand five hundred and twenty-four, and losses paid in 
1881 amounting to $4,742,090. 


*Laws of 1880, chapter 45 

fLavvs of 1853, chapter 463, as amended by Laws of 1865, chapter 328. 

^Westminster Review, January, 1882. 

§An exhaustive consideration of these societies may be found in Walford’s Insurance Cyclopaedia, vol. 4, pp. 376 to 616. 
|| See “Nineteenth Century,” July, August and September, 1880. 

78 



618 


INSURANCE. 


Veteran New York Companies. 

THE MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY of New York was organ¬ 
ized in 1842. Alfred Pell, of New York, having formed the design of establishing 
such an institution, associated with himself as co-workers Morris Robinson, Joseph 
Blunt and John V. L. Pruyn. The corporators of the company also include such 
distinguished names as Aspinwall, Minturn, Collins, Livingston, Brevoort, Cornell, 

De Witt and Fitz-Green Halleck. The first meeting of the company was held on 

the 9th of May, 1842, when Morris Robinson was elected President. Ten days 
later Samuel Hannay was chosen Secretary; Joseph Blunt, Counsel; and Minturn 

Post, Physician. Early in 1843 — Messrs. Shipman, Ayres & Co., agents of the 
company, having succeeded in raising the requisite $500,000 of insurance — the 
company commenced business. It took about two years, however, for the young 
institution to overcome various difficulties surrounding it. At the end of the first 
year, its accumulated funds amounted to only $32,311; a year later they reached 

the sum of $97,273. Three years after, the assets of the company amounted to 

over $500,000, while thousands of its policies were in existence. The Mutual Life 
was now established on a solid basis, and its future success fully assured. Mr. 
Robinson was succeeded by Joseph B. Collins as President of the company; and 
in 1852, only ten years after its formation, Frederick S. Winston was elected its 
third President. In this official capacity he has ever since been connected with 
the institution, and under his fostering care it may truly be said to have com¬ 
menced its grand career of usefulness. Its well-merited success reflects the highest 
honor on the remarkable executive ability, the careful and constant supervision, and 
the independent integrity of its present illustrious and venerable President, who has 
given the company a reputation both at home and abroad as one of the soundest 

and most prosperous institutions of the kind that has ever existed. The affairs 

of this company have been wisely and successfully conducted on what is known as 
the purely mutual plan. In a purely mutual company, the policy-holders receive 
all the profits, and own and control the company. Such is the Mutual Life of 
New York; and its vast assets of nearly $100,000,000 are the exclusive property 
of its one hundred thousand policy-holders. A company constituted on such a firm, 
popular basis must certainly commend itself to the wisdom, the intelligence and 
the requirements of the public. Each succeeding year since 1867 an annual divi¬ 
dend has been declared by the Mutual Life, ranging from $2,500,000 to $4,000,000. 
Adhering steadily to a cash basis, with its contracts confined to insurance and 
annuities upon lives, and its investments always made near at home, the Mutual 


THE MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF NEW YORK. 

CENTRAL OFFICE. 












































































































. 










INSURANCE. 


619 

Life has furnished the models for other companies with regard to premium rates, 
investments and general business methods. 

About five years after Mr. Winston became President of the company, an 
analysis of results was made regarding the general forms of insurance in use; and, 
as a consequence, several reforms were adopted, such as discontinuing to issue term- 
life and joint-life policies, and refusing to do any new business in the Gulf States, 
where the mortality had been greater than in other portions of the Union. 

In 1876 this company issued a Mortality Report, which throws much new light 
on American vital statistics, and is the present standard authority on questions 
relating to the science of life insurance. It also shows that the rate of mortality 
in the Mutual Life has been considerably less among residents of the United 
States than in the best English companies. 

In the history of the Mutual Life we have one of the most remarkable 
instances on record of steady growth and development. Some idea of the mag¬ 
nitude of the company’s business may be obtained from the following statements, 
covering a period of thirty-three years, from its organization to 1876: It received 
for premiums, $151,419,132; interest, $33,534> I2 5! paid to members for claims by 
death, $31,005,246; its dividends amounted to $38,166,897, and its surrendered poli¬ 
cies to $23,519,760. It issued in all one hundred and seventy-two thousand two 
hundred and seventy-nine policies, insuring about $600,000,000. In 1850 the company 
had $1,000,000 of assets; in 1863, $10,000,000; in 1876, $82,000,000; and in 1883, 
$97,746,363, with one hundred and six thousand two hundred and fourteen policies 
in force. Unrivaled in magnitude, unsurpassed in general management, and great 
in the benefits which it has conferred on mankind, the Mutual Life Insurance 
Company of New York stands forth as the pride of our advanced civilization. 

Board of Trustees. — Lrederick S. Winston, Samuel E. Sproulls, Lucius Robin¬ 
son, Samuel D. Babcock, Wm. Smith Brown, Henry A. Smythe, William E. Dodge, 
George S. Coe, John E. Develin, Seymour L. Husted, Oliver H. Palmer, Richard 
A. McCurdy, James C. Holden, Hermann C. von Post, George C. Richardson, Alex¬ 
ander H. Rice, William F. Babcock, F. Ratchford Starr, Frederick H. Cossitt, Lewis 
May, Oliver Harriman, Thomas Dickson, Henry W. Smith, John H. Sherwood, 
George H. Andrews, Robert Olyphant, George F. Baker, Benjamin B. Sherman, 
Joseph Thompson, Dudley Olcott, Anson Stager, Frederick Cromwell, Julien T. 
Davies, Robert Sewell. 

Officers of the Company. — Frederick S. Winston, President; Richard A. 
McCurdy, Vice-President; Robert A. Grannis, Second Vice-President; Isaac F. Lloyd, 
Secretary; William H. C. Bartlett, LL. D., Actuary; Oliver H. Palmer, Solicitor; 
Gustavus S. Winston, M. D., Walter R. Gillette, M. D., Medical Directors. 


620 


INSURANCE. 


THE NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY was organized in 1845 
as a purely mutual company, and has a perpetual charter. It began business with 
J. De Peyster Ogden as President and Pliny Freeman as Secretary. Mr. Ogden 
was soon succeeded by A. M. Merchant, and he, in 1848, by Morris Franklin, who, 
at the advanced age of eighty-one years, still remains the veteran President of the 
company. In 1863, eighteen years after the organization of the company, William 
H. Beers became Actuary, and soon afterward Vice-President and the active Man¬ 
ager of the company. 

Under Mr. Beers’ direction the company’s wonderful growth began, and has 
continued until it now stands among the foremost institutions of its kind in the 
world. It had previously been the custom of the company — as with many others — 
to require only a part of the annual premiums to be paid in cash, the balance 
remaining as a loan against the policy; but under his direction all new business 
was thenceforth done on the all-cash plan. Under his supervision the medical 
department was also re-organized upon improved methods, which soon resulted in 
a marked improvement in the ratio between death-claims and income. This ratio, 
from the organization of the company to 1863, had averaged over thirty-three per 
cent; while from 1863 to 1883 it has averaged less than twenty per cent. 

The quick business perceptions of Mr. Beers, together with the thorough commer¬ 
cial training previously received by him in the banking and commission business, 
have also proved of great value in securing for the company safe and remunerative 
investments. This is shown by the remarkable fact that the present cash value 
of the company’s assets exceeds the original cost by nearly $2,000,000, one-quarter 
of which sum has directly accrued from investments made by the Finance Com¬ 
mittee upon the suggestion of Mr. Beers. 

In all American life companies, until i860, the non-payment of premiums by 
a policy-holder resulted in the absolute forfeiture of his policy and all accumula¬ 
tions. The New York Life was the first company to recognize the injustice and 
hardship of this feature, and to devise a remedy for it. During that year the com¬ 
pany originated and introduced its ten-payment non-forfeiture policy, and soon after¬ 
ward applied the same principle to policies issued upon other tables. The change 
was strenuously resisted by insurance companies generally, but it proved to be a 
great and lasting reform. The plan became popular among those desiring insurance, 
and was, of necessity, adopted in some form by all other companies; and under its 
provisions retiring policy-holders now receive from $8,000,000 to $12,000,000 annually. 

The following table shows the progress of the company during a period of 
thirty-eight years, in the amount of insurance written, the income of the company, 
the sums paid to policy-holders and their families, and in the sums held and invested 
for the benefit of living policy-holders: 


NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY.—INTERIOR OF PRINCIPAL OFFICE. 

















































INSURANCE. 


621 


Period. 

Dates inclusive. 

Number of policies 
issued. 

Amount insured. 

Premiums received. 

Received from 
interest, etc. 

— 

Insurance in force, 
end of each period. 

1845 to 1850, 6 years. 

6,522 

$11,652,749 

$670,207 73 

$29,432 65 

$8,207,100 

1851 to 1856, 6 years, - 

4,893 

12,991,712 

1,953,102 82 

263,247 53 

11,385,136 

1857 to 1862, 6 years. 

7,749 

22,258,047 

3 , 027,735 56 

617,689 64 

22,302,464 

• 

Totals, first 18 years, 

19,164 

$46,902,508 

$5,651,046 II 

$910,369 82 


1863 to 1868, 6 years, - 

37,780 

$116,990,083 

$14,330,708 37 

$2,093,800 6l 

$86,733,575 

1869 to 1874, 6 years, 

54,548 

161 , 737,478 

35,744,623 98 

6 , 953.369 IO 

122,835,123 

1875 to 1880, 6 years, - 

37,692 

117,461,078 

36,154,976 49 

11,945,269 43 

135 , 726,916 

Totals, second 18 yrs., 

130,020 

$396,188,639 

$86,230,308 84 

$20,992,439 14 


1881 and 1882, 2 years, - 

22,119 

$73,699,801 

$17,203,339 32 

$5,230,672 74 

$171,415,097 

Totals, 38 years, - 

171,303 

$516,790,948 

$109,084,694 27 

$ 27 , 133,481 70 



Period. 

Dates inclusive. 

Death-claims paid. 

Dividends and ret’d 
premiums on 
canceled policies. 

Endowments and 
annuities. 

Assets, end of 
each period. 

Surplus, at end of each 
period, four and one- 
half per cent. 

1845 to 1850, 6 j-ears, 

1851 to 1856, 6 years, - 
1857 to 1862, 6 years, - 

$188,583 62 
881,079 32 
1,100,781 OI 

$2,974 67 
171,416 61 
541,973 95 

$3,569 84 

$354,755 24 

i,i 9 I >545 59 
2,592,633 30 

# 

* 

$39,028 93 

Totals, first 18 years, 

$ 2 , 170,443 95 

$716,365 23 

$3,569 84 



1863 to 1868, 6 years, - 
1869 to 1874, 6 years, 

1S75 to 1880, 6 years, - 

$2,884,734 03 
7,680,254 22 
9,699,842 84 

$2,951,962 51 
12 , 947,575 25 
13,681,382 24 

$12,993 87 
138,105 84 
3,489,524 06 

$11,000,822 60 
27 , 179,395 00 
38,996,952 00 

$ 2 , 394 , 39 ! 76 
4,520,401 79 
7,688,547 40 

Totals, second 18 vrs.. 

$20,264,831 09 

$29,580,920 00 

$3,640,623 77 


18S1 and 1882, 2 j’ears, - 

$3,968,495 32 

$5,424,036 76 

$1,909,597 85 

$50,800,396 82 

$10,073,892 51 

Totals, 38 years, - 

$26,403,770 36 

$ 35 , 721,321 99 

$ 5 , 553 , 79 ! 46 




* Insurance Department did not make valuations until 1862. 


The officers, trustees, medical department and agency staff need no other eulogy 
than is furnished by this record of steady and rapid increase, which did not intermit 
even during the years of trial following the panic of 1873. It will be noted 
that the company’s total interest earnings have been over $700,000 in excess of its 
total losses by death, and that the amount paid policy-holders, added to the amount 
now held in trust for them, exceeds their payments to the company by over 
$9,000,000, while its immense surplus of over $10,000,000 assures to it a high divi¬ 
dend-paying power for the future. The New York Life is thoroughly organized, 
and no greater tribute can be paid to the energy, sagacity and good judgment with 
which its vast interests have been managed, than is found in the successful estab¬ 
lishment of flourishing branch offices in Great Britain, France, Belgium, Austria, 
Italy, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, as well as in Mexico, the 
West India Islands and South America. Its business was never so large as at 
present, nor its prospects for the future so brilliant. Founded upon the purely 











































































622 


INSURANCE 


mutual principle, with a history that covers a period of great changes and disasters 
in the commercial world, the New York Life, in its rapid growth and high stand¬ 
ing, presents an illustrious example of a great and increasing trust, administered 
with unwearied energy, faithfulness and skill. 

Board of Trustees. — Morris Franklin, William H. Appleton, William Barton, 
William A. Booth, H. B. Claflin, John M. Furman, David Dows, Henry Bowers, 
Loomis L. White, Robert B. Collins, S. S. Fisher, Charles Wright, M. D., Edward 
Martin, John Mairs, Henry Tuck, M. D., Alexander Studwell, R. Suydam Grant, 
Archibald H. Welch, William H. Beers. 

Officers of the Company. — Morris Franklin, President; William H. Beers, Vice- 
President and Actuary; Theodore M. Banta, Cashier; D. O’Dell, Siiperintendent of 
Agencies; Charles Wright, M. D., Henry Tuck, M. D., Medical Examiners. 

THE CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY of the city of New 
York was organized and commenced business on the 7th of January, 1853. 
William V. Brady was elected its first President, and occupied the position until 
1857, when he was succeeded by George T. Hope, the then Secretary of the com¬ 
pany, who has now been at the head of the company during a period of twenty- 
six years, and still continues to manage its large interests with veteran skill. 

When the books for subscription to the stock of this company were publicly 
opened on the 27th of December, 1852, it was found that in two hours, consid¬ 
erably more than the amount fixed for the capital had been subscribed for. On 

the 3d of January, 1853, the subscriptions were all paid in, and four days after, 
the first policy of the company was issued. By its able and judicious manage¬ 
ment the infant company soon gained the confidence of the public, and successful 
agencies were rapidly established in different places. 

An early and noticeable feature of the Continental’s method of doing business 
was the adoption of what is known as the “ Participation Plan,” the principles of 
which as practiced by the Continental may be briefly explained. Dividends to 
stockholders were restricted to interest upon the capital and one-quarter of the 

profits of the company, and the remaining three-quarters of the profits were 
allotted to the holders of participating policies, according to the amount of premium 
paid by them respectively. Scrip was issued to the policy-holders for their 
respective interests, and the fund represented by said scrip was held by the 

company, to meet extraordinary losses, until the amount so accumulated reached a 
certain sum, when the excess was used to redeem scrip in the order of its issue. 

In 1856 the company fixed the amount of the fund to be accumulated before 

commencing to redeem scrip, at $500,000. Thenceforward, owing largely to the 



CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY OF NEW YORK CITY 
















































































INSURANCE. 


62 


n 

J 


adoption of this popular and equitable system, the growth of the company was rapid. 
In order to adapt the system to its increased business the company subsequently 
raised the amount of the futid, first from $500,000 to $1,000,000, and afterward 

from $1,000,000 to $2,000,000. Before October, 1871, all outstanding scrip from 
1857 to 1865, amounting to nearly $1,000,000, was redeemed in due.-order and in 
accordance with the requirements of the system. 

At the time of the Chicago fire in 1871, the amount of the fund represented 
by the company’s outstanding scrip was about $1,000,000, and its immediate 

availability enabled the company to pay promptly its losses by that fire, amounting 

to $1,750,000, without interrupting its regular business for a single hour. 

At the regular monthly meeting of the Board of Directors, held on the 
Thursday morning following the fire, it was unanimously resolved to double the 

capital stock of the company, and before leaving their seats the directors 

subscribed for the whole amount. A year later the Boston fire inflicted a further 

loss on the Continental of $500,000, which was met with equal promptness by an 
assessment of $400,000 on the stock. 

In 1874 the Continental was the first company to submit to the provisions 
of the Fire Insurance Safety Fund law, enacted by the New York Legislature 
of that year. Under this law dividends to stockholders are restricted to seven 
per cent per annum upon capital until a surplus has been accumulated from the 

profits of the business, and afterward to seven per cent upon capital and such sur¬ 

plus, leaving the entire profits of the business for the protection of policy-holders. 
It is, however, a noteworthy and remarkable fact that the income of the Continental, 
from investments alone, since its submission to that law, has paid all dividends 
to stockholders, and at the same time contributed $418,413 toward the surplus of 
$1,557,865.69 which it had at the close of 1882. 

It will be seen that, under the restrictions of the safety-fund law, in case of 
another great fire like that in Chicago, while the losers will have a superior protec¬ 
tion by reason of that law, the policy-holders of the Continental who are not involved 
will be protected as are those who may be involved in such a disaster. 

The steady and remarkable growth of the Continental’s assets and net surplus 
during the ten years ending December 31, [882, which include all the Safety 
Fund period, will be best seen from the following table : 


YEAR. 

Cash assets. 

Net surplus. 

YEAR. 

Cash assets. 

Net surplus. 

1873, - 

$2,255,937 08 

$ 137,973 91 

1878, .... 

$ 3 , 327,771 74 

$1,038,422 27 

1874, - 

2,606,235 97 

407,601 04 

1879, - 

3,478,188 76 

1,105,319 28 

1875, ... - 

2,845,165 64 

656,013 53 

1880, .... 

3,888,719 41 

1,256,135 77 

1876, - - - 

3,040,085 07 

844,015 13 

1881, - - - 

4,207,205 51 

1,406,720 81 

1877, - - - 

3 , 173.933 31 

966,501 33 

1882, - 

4 , 450,534 50 

i,' 557,865 69 


✓ 




















624 


INSURANCE. 


Board of Directors.—Samuel D. Babcock, George Bliss, William H. Swan, 
Henry C. Bowen, Aurelius B. Hull, William M. Vail, Theodore I. Husted, William 
H. Caswell, D. H. Arnold, William M. Richards, Horace B. Claflin, Henry B. Hyde, 
S. B. Chittenden, Seymour L. Husted, Henry F. Spaulding, William L. Andrews, 
E. W. Corlies, George W. Lane, James Fraser, Hiram Barney, Lawrence Turnure, 
Samuel A. Sawyer, John L. Riker, William Bryce, Wellington Clapp, John H. Earle, 
Richard A. McCurdy, Alexander E. Orr, Charles H. Booth, William H. Hurlbut, 
Edward Martin, Bradish Johnson, S. M. Buckingham, J. D. Vermilye, Jacob Wendell, 
John F. Slater, John H. Reed, George T. Hope, H. H. Lamport, F. C. Moore. 

Officers of the Company.—George T. Hope, President; H. H. Lamport, I ice- 
President; F. C. Moore, Second Vice-President; Cyrus Peck, Secretary; A. M. Kirby, 
Secretary of Local Department; B. C. Townsend, Secretary of Agency Department; 
C. H. Dutcher, Secretary of Brooklyn Department. 

THE PHENIX INSURANCE COMPANY, of Brooklyn, New York, was 
incorporated on the 9th of September, 1853. The project of forming such a 
company, however, was started in the autumn of 1852 by several prominent 
citizens of Brooklyn, among whom were Seth Low, Richard L. Crook and Stephen 
Crowell. 

After several meetings had been held during successive months, the work of 
soliciting subscriptions to the capital stock was commenced and carried on until 
the required amount, $200,000, was obtained, and the funds deposited in the Shoe 
and Leather Bank. Stephen Crowell was elected President of the new company, 
and Philander Shaw, Secretary. It speaks well for the superior business qualities, 
sound judgment and integrity of Mr. Crowell, that he has been unanimously 
re-elected President of the company every year since its organization — a period of 
thirty years. 

The Phenix Insurance Company began business at 345 Fulton street, Brooklyn, 
opposite the City Hall, issuing its first policy on the day following its organiza¬ 
tion, to Rev. Evan M. Johnson. The first policy issued from the New York 
office was numbered two hundred, and was issued to Benjamin F. Seaver. The first 
certificate of stock was issued to Henry Holt for ten shares, and the second to 
Charles C. Betts for forty shares. After occupying various offices, the company 
purchased Montague Hall in 1867, and soon after moved into its present office. 
It subsequently purchased the brick building, No. 84 Broadway, Brooklyn, in which 
is still located its Eastern District Branch Office. In New York the first office 
of the company was in the basement of the building then occupied by the Shoe 
and Leather Bank, at the corner of William and John streets. January 1, 1855, 
it was removed to number 64 Wall street, then the center of the insurance busi- 


INSURANCE. 


625 


ness; and May 1, 1855, it was again removed to the adjoining building, number 
62 Wall street, where the company remained for five years. In 1864 the office 
was removed to number 139 Broadway, and in 1869 to number 173, where it 
remained for six years. In 1875 the present offices in the Western Union Build¬ 
ing were leased. It is worthy of remark here that while the Phenix commenced 

business on a capital of $200,000 in 1853, this capital was increased in 1864 to 
$500,000, and in 1865 to $1,000,000. 

The Phenix was established on a sound financial and scientific basis, and like 
many other similar institutions it has gone safely through periods of great depres¬ 
sion of rates, excessive competition and tremendous losses. It suffered seriously 
in the memorable Portland, Maine, fire, in 1866, and much more severely in the 
great Chicago fire of 1871. It is said to have been the first company to begin 
payment of claims in consequence of this most disastrous conflagration ; and in a 
short time it paid one hundred and sixty-seven claims, amounting in all to 
$434,150. Immediately after the Chicago fire the Phenix seems to have been 
inspired with new life and invincible energy, justifying its claims to so popular 
and classical a name. Its business increased so rapidly, even with its advanced 
rates, that the autumn of 1872 found its affairs in a very flourishing condition ; 
when suddenly, on the 9th of November of the same year—just thirteen months 
after the Chicago fire — occurred the great fire in Boston, inflicting a loss on the 

company even greater than that caused by the flames of Chicago. This loss 
amounted to $505,629, all of which was promptly paid by the company without 
any aid from the stockholders. It will thus be seen that in the Chicago and 
Boston conflagrations the Phenix, besides making its yearly dividend, paid claims 
for losses amounting in all to $939,779- It is no wonder that the company 
points with pride to its noble record in these two instances. Since that period 
of great disaster in underwriting the growth of the Phenix has been steady and 

healthful, keeping pace with the times, and meeting with substantial success at 

every step of its progressive march. While other companies have had to assess 
their stockholders in cases of great losses, the Phenix has not yet been obliged 
to resort to such a measure, its great strength enabling it to stand up against 
all the enormous losses that it has experienced, paying all just claims, dollar for 
dollar, and, with one exception — July, 1866, just after the Portland fire — making 
a dividend regularly every six months since 1855. 

The following statement of the business done by the company from its organ¬ 
ization in 1853 until January 1, 1883, may be of general interest: Total amount 
of income received from all sources, $33,046,115.84; total expenditures for all pur¬ 
poses, including losses, $28,824,811.13; total number of fire losses paid, 19,441; 
total amount paid for losses, $19,271,328.50; total amount paid in dividends to 

79 


626 


INSURANCE. 


share-holders, $2,414,000. The gross assets of the Phenix, January 1, 1883, were 
$3,295,326.60 and its net surplus $644,474.60. 

Board of Directors. — Stephen Crowell, A. V. Stout, John M. Hicks, George 
W. Bergen, Oliver Hoyt, Augustus Studwell, Charles F. Bloom, Edwin T. Rice, 
E. W. Crowell, George P. Sheldon, William P. Beale, Arthur D. Fiske, A. B. Eng¬ 
land, Philander Shaw, Arthur B. Graves, E. L. Roberts, Thomas Jones, Caleb S. 
Woodhull, Henry T. McCoun, George I. Seney, Thomas E. Stillman, William M. 
Thomas, Thomas R. Burch, George W. Gregerson, W. C. Annan, Robert Hampson, 
William R. Crowell, A. O. Wilcox, Jr. 

Officers of the Company. — Stephen Crowell, President; W. R. Crowell, Vice- 
President; Philander Shaw, Secretary. 

THE ATLANTIC MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY was incorporated 
in 1842, under chapter 217 of the laws of this State passed April 11, 1842. 
Among its original corporators were leading merchants of that day in the city of 
New York, whose names and credit commanded respect throughout the world of 
commerce. 

The charter aimed to provide a reliable and effective organization through 
which the merchants, mutually insuring each other, could, in just proportion, share 
the savings and profits, as well as the losses and expenses, incident to the insur¬ 
ance indemnity. In the outset,, by way of security to the first dealers, use was 
made of subscription notes and also of the previously existing “ Atlantic Insur¬ 
ance Company,” which last-named company was discontinued with payment in full 
of all its liabilities, including capital stock. But in the course of a few years 

the new organization was enabled to dispense with these temporary aids, and 
thenceforward its affairs were conducted upon the strictly and wholly mutual basis, 
without intervention of a capital stock or of any interest other than that of the 
assured. 

Although the plan of the company is of necessity somewhat complex in detail 
and in the provisions for its regulation, yet its salient features are simple and 
easy to be understood. During each January, the trustees make up the annual 
statement and thus ascertain the surplus or net profits on marked-off risks of 

the last preceding year. To that end the condition of the company is deter¬ 

mined by suitable appraisals and estimates of the assets and liabilities. These 
estimates have invariably been made upon a prudent and conservative basis and 

with due reference to the hazards of the future. Among the liabilities are included 
all outstanding dividend certificates and also the probable amount to be paid on 
every claim and demand which has been or may be made against the company. 


INSURANCE. 


627 


For the net profits or surplus thus ascertained by the trustees, they declare, 

at the end of each year, a dividend on the premiums of the marked-off risks, 
and cause certificates to be issued to each of the dealers — or persons taking out 
policies — for their per centum or just proportion of the surplus or profits so 

divided. By this process the assured annually receive a dividend representing the 
entire residue of sums realized by the company, from premiums and other sources, 
after deducting or providing for losses, expenses and outstanding liabilities. 

The certificates of profits are transferable on the books of the company, and 
are redeemable in the order of issue, whenever directed by the trustees. Mean¬ 
while they are subject to reduction, if necessary to make good a deficiency of 
receipts to meet losses and expenses. Until redemption an annual interest dividend, 
not to exceed six per cent, is made upon these certificates. In practice the 

company has never failed to pay the six per cent interest upon its certificates, 
nor to redeem the principal after the lapse of not more than five years. Neither 
has it ever failed, except in 1854, to make a substantial dividend to its dealers. 

Dividends were made even during the disastrous years of the civil war, when 
the company’s losses by the “Alabama ” and other Confederate cruisers reached 

the immense sum of $1,649,889; although, of course, the sums of money taken 
from the treasury of the company to pay these extraordinary losses, diminished by 
so much the amount of dividend to all the dealers of the company upon the 
premiums for the years in which the losses were sustained. From a report sub¬ 
mitted to the Board of Trustees at the close of the war, it appears that the losses 
of the company caused by the Confederate cruisers were distributed as follows : 


• 

l862. 

1863. 

1864. 

1865. 

Amount of losses, ------ 

Number of dealers by whom losses were borne, 

- 

- 

- 

$169,764 

2,016 

$814,296 

2,264 

$273,661 

2,280 

$392,168 

2,720 


The company has always claimed that it should be re-imbursed for these losses 
from the sum of $15,500,000 paid by Great Britain on the award of the Geneva 
Tribunal for the loss of vessels destroyed by the Confederate cruisers; but, thus 
far, its efforts to secure such re-imbursement have proved unavailing, although the 
losses were specially included in the award by the Tribunal. 

The first President of the company was Walter R. Jones. Upon his death, 
in 1855. he was succeeded by his nephew, John D. Jones, the present President. 
The first Vice-President was Josiah L. Hale, whose present successor is Charles 
Dennis. There is now a second Vice-President, William H. H. Moore, and a third, 
Anton A. Raven. 















628 


INSURANCE. 


The Board of Trustees numbers nearly forty, and has always included men of 
high repute in the various departments of New York commerce. It has sustained 
exceptionally severe losses, by death, during the past year. Among the honored 
names thus removed from the roll of membership, have been those of Edwin D. 
Morgan, William E. Dodge, Lewis Curtis, Robert L. Stuart and Samuel Willets. 

The success and enduring prosperity of a financial institution are generally 
best evidenced by quiet, steady and uninterrupted progress, devoid of notoriety or 
sensational incident. Such a progress must be accepted as the best attainable 
result, even where the utmost fidelity to trust, and the highest order of ability 
and integrity are devoted to the service of the institution. In the course of years, 
however, there is an accumulation of statistics, which are sufficiently expressive 
to those who care to consider them. 

In the case of the “Atlantic,” the statistics may be thus briefly summarized. 
Its period of corporate life has been forty-one years, and thus far there are no 
indications of decay or diminished vitality. The value of vessels, freights and 
merchandise, heretofore protected or covered by its policies, exceeds $9,500,000,000. 
The sums paid by it for losses, up to January 1, 1883, aggregated about 
$89,000,000. Upon the certificates issued to its policy-holders — for profits or 
surplus—it has paid, for interest and in redemption of principal, something more 
than $54,000,000. The outstanding residue of such certificates, not yet redeemed, 
slightly exceeds $6,790,000. To pay these certificates and meet the engagements 
and business, including liabilities of the period after the 1st of January, 1883, the 
company has, in round figures, over $11,000,000 in value of assets. 

Board of Trustees.—J. D. Jones, Charles Dennis, W. H. H. Moore, Lewis 
Curtis,* Charles H. Russell, James Low, David Lane, Gordon W. Burnham, A. A. 
Raven, William Sturgis, Benjamin H. Field, Josiah O. Low, William E. Dodge,* 
Royal Phelps, Thomas F. Youngs,* C. A. Hand, John D. Hewlett, William H. Webb, 
Charles P. Burdett, Horace Gray, Edmund W. Corlies, John Elliott, Adolph Lemoyne, 
Robert B. Minturn, Charles H. Marshall, George W. Lane, George Bliss, Edwin D. 
Morgan,* James G. De P'orest, Samuel Willets,* Charles D. Leverich, William Bryce, 
William H. Fogg, Thomas B. Coddington, Horace K. Thurber, William Degroot, 
John L. Riker, N. Denton Smith, William E. Dodge, Jr., William H. Macy. 

Officers of the Company.—John D. Jones, President; Charles Dennis, Vice- 
President; W. H. H. Moore, Second Vice-President; A. A. Raven, Third Vice-Presi¬ 
dent; J H. Chapman, Secretary. 


* Deceased 



INDEX 


Abe.-Ame. ] 


A. 


[ And.-Aud. 


Abell, Henry Edward, biography of, with portrait, 
166. 

Ackerly, Dr. Samuel, 375. 

Adams Express Company, 514. 

Adams, John, 69, 71, 72. 

Adams, John Quincy, 78. 

Adams, Rev. William, D.D., 384. 

Hitna Insurance Company, Connecticut, 602. 

Hihna Life Insurance Company, Connecticut, 605, 610, 
611. 

Agricultural Insurance Company, 601. 

Agriculture, interest in, 67, 92; statistics of, 131, 132; 

general statistics, 133, 134. 

“Albany,” Steamer, view of, 554. 

Albany Insurance Company, 601. 

Albany and Schenectady Railroad, 505. 

Albany Argus, 84, 88, 98, 481, 485. 

Albany Atlas, 98. 

Albany Evening Journal, 500. 

Albany Morning Express, 271. 

Allen, Horatio, 479, 498, 509. 

Allen, John, Jr., 552. 

Alvord, Thomas G., 139. 

American Central Insurance Company, Missouri, 602. 
American Exchange Fire Insurance Company, 601. 
American Express Company, 517, 518. 

American Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

American Insurance Company, Massachusetts, 602. 
American Insurance Company, New Jersey, 602. 
American Journal of Insanity, 353, 355, 358, 367. 
Ames, Leonard, portrait of, 564. 


Andrews, Judson B., M.D., 364; portrait of, 366. 
biography of, 367. 

Anglo-American Telegraph Company organized, 99. 
Apgar, De Witt J., biography of, 256 ; portrait of, 255. 
Apgar, Edgar K., biography of, 233; portrait of, 246. 
Arms and Seals of the State, history of, 211-214; plates 
of, 211, 212, 214. 

Armstrong, Theodore S., M.D., 373 ; biography of, 
with portrait, 374. 

Arnold, Benedict, 40, 46, 47. 

Arnold, Henry L., portrait of, 298; biography of, 299. 
Arsenal, New York State, view of, 187. 

Arthur, Chester A., 160, 170. 

Aspinwall, Lloyd, biography 0^173-174; portrait of,175. 
Aspinwall, William, 173. 

Assessment and Taxation, history of, 273-276. 

Astor, John Jacob, 10i. 

Atlantic Fire and Marine Insurance Company, 602. 
Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company, 615/ history of, 
626-628. 

Atlantic Telegraph laid, 512. 

Attica and Buffalo Railroad, 505. 

Attorney-General The, history of, 234-236. 
Attorneys-General, list of, 236. 

Auburn and Rochester Railroad, 465, 505. 

Auburn and Syracuse Railroad, 465, 505. 

Auburn State Prison, history of, with view, 289-291. 
Auditor of Canal Department, office of, established, 
235 ; history of, 257-259. 

Auditors-General of the Plantations, list of, 226. 
Auditors-General of the State, list of, 226. 


Bac.-Bak. ] 

Backus, Frederick F., 387. 

Bagg, M. M., M.D., 352. 

Baker, Charles S., 561. 

Baker, George F., portrait of, 565. 


[ Bak.-Ban. 

Baker, Isaac V., 539. 

Baker, Isaac V., Jr., biography of, with portrait, 288. 
Baldwinsville canal, 464. 

Bank of New York incorporated, 68. 

L029] 







INDEX. 


[ Bow.-But. 


Ban.-Bow. ] 


Banking and Currency, history of, 563-592. 

Banking Department organized, 95 ; history of, 263, 
264; Superintendent of the, 264. 

Banyar, Goldsboro, 436. 

Barnard, George G., 278. 

Barnes, Alfred C., biography of, with portrait, 180-181- 
Barnes, Alfred S., 180. 

Barnes, William, 100, 265, 593. 

Barney, A. H., 517. 

Barney, D. N., 516, 517. 

Barry, Patrick, portrait of, 566. 

Bayard, William, 27. 

Beach, John H., 281. 

Beardsley, Rufus Z., 521. 

Beardsley, William C., 518. 

Bedell, Ossian, portrait of, 251; biography of, 252. 
Beers, William H., 620 ; portrait of, 606 
Bell, James A., 276. 

Benedict, Dr. N. D., 353. 

Benson, Egbert, 234. 

Berkshire Life Insurance Company, Massachusetts 
605, 610, 611. 

Berry, B. Gage, 527. 

Bigelow, John, 118. 

Bingham, Dexter, 513. 

Binghamton Asylum for Chronic Insane, history of, 
with view, 373-374- 
Black River canal, 464. 

Blanchard, Henry, 517. 

Bleecker, Harmanus, 488. 

Bliss, George, 492. 

Bliss, William, portrait of, 507. 

Boatman’s Insurance Company, 602. 

Boody, Azariah, 521. 

Booth, James W., 118. 

Booth, William A., portrait of, 567. 

Boston and Albany Railroad, 549. 

Boston Marine Insurance Company, Massachusetts, 
6 i 5 - 

Bostwick, William L., 255; portrait of, 255. 

Bouck, William C, portrait of, 86, 90, 450, 454. 

Bowen, James, 498. 


Bowery Fire Insurance Company, 596. 

Boylston Mutual Insurance Company, Massachusetts, 
615. 

Bradford, George, 311. 

Bradish, Luther, 86, 492. 

Bradley, Attorney-General, 17. 

Brainard, Jeremiah, 451. 

Brewster, Simon L., portrait of, 568. 

British America Insurance Company, 602. 

British and Foreign Marine Insurance Company, Eng¬ 
land, 615. 

Broadway Insurance Company, 601. 

Brockway, Z. R., biography of, with portrait, 402. 
Brockway, Colonel Zebulon, 402. 

Brodhead, Charles C., 440. 

Brooklyn Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

Brooklyn Life Insurance Company, 606, 610, 611. 
Brooks, Erastus, 384, 385. 

Brooks, S. D., M.D., 384. 

Brown, Lewis B., 544. 

Brown, Major Thompson S., 509. 

Browne, J. Irving, 45, note j 91, note. 

Brownell, William H., portrait of, 204; biography of, 
206. 

Bruce, Dwight H., portrait of, 208; biography of, 209. 
Brush, Augustus A., 292, biography of, with portrait, 
298. 

Buchanan, James, 512. 

Buel, Jesse, 88. 

Buel, Judge, 502. 

Buffalo and Rochester Railroad, 505. 

Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, 255. 

Buffalo German Insurance Company, 601. 

Buffalo, New York and Philadelphia Railroad, 552. 
Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane, history of, with 
view, 364-366. 

Burke, Edmund, 32. 

Burleigh, Henry G., portrait of, 569. 

Burnett, William, 17. 

Burr, Aaron, 54, 70, 71, 72, 73. 

Burt, W. L., 540, 541. 

Butterfield, John, 517 


Cal.-Can. ] 

Calhoun, John C., 78, 83, 85. 

Calhoun, William B., 488. 

Cambreling, Churchill C., 482, 485. 

Campbell, Samuel, biography of, with portrait, 357. 
Canajoharie and Catskill Railroad, 465. 

Canal Appraisers, history of, 253-254. 

Canal Board, 248. 

Canal Department, history of, 247-248. 

Canal Fund, 247. 


c. 

[Can.-Car. 

Canals, committee appointed to investigate the man¬ 
agement of, 118 ; history of, 435-475. / 

Canda, Charles I., 544. 

Car House, Grand Central Depot, New York city, view 
of interior, 547. 

Carpenter, Sarah M., biography of, with portrait, 344. 
Carr, Joseph B., 102, 183; portrait of, 198, 201, 212, 
215,218; biography of, with portrait, 219-221, 312. 
Carrol, Charles, 479, note. 

[630] 







Cay.-Cli. ] 


INDEX. 


[ Coe.-Cus. 


Cayuga and Seneca canal, 464. 

Central Pacific Railroad, 554. 

Chamber of Life Insurance, formation of, 687. 
Champlain canal and feeder, 464. 

Chapin, Chester W., 547. 

Chapin, John B., M.D., 359 ; biography of, with por¬ 
trait, 361. 

Chapman, Major, 492. 

Charitable Institutions, 129. 

Chedell, John H., 521. 

Chemung canal and feeder, 464. 

Chemung Railroad, 505. 

Chenango canal, 464. 

China Mutual Insurance Company, Massachusetts, 615. 
Christensen, Christian T., portrait of, 204 ; biography 
of, 205 — 206. 

Church, Benjamin, 389. 

Church, Sanford E., 89. 

Citizens’ Insurance Company, 601. 

Citizens’ Insurance Company, Pennsylvania, 602 
City Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

City of London Insurance Company, England, 602. 
Civil Damage Act, 117. 

Clapp, Russell P., portrait of, 553. 

Clark, Benjamin S. W., 121. 

Clark, Myron H., 98 ; portrait of, 98, 105. 

Clarke, Charles C., 549. 

Clarkson, Matthew, 279. 

Clay, Henry, 78. 83. 

Cleaveland, Joseph M., M.D., 362 ; biography of, with 
portrait, 363. 

Clinton, De Witt, 66, 67, 68 ; portrait of, 68, 69, 72, 
74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 79 , 8o , 8l , 82 , 2 47 , 2 49 - 3 ° 9 , 3 i 8 , 
3 8 3 , 437 , 444 , 446, 447, 457, 477, 496. 

Clinton, Colonel De Witt, Jr., 497. 

Clinton Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

Clinton, George, 19, 20, 21, 37, 43, 45 ; portrait of, 

45 , 47 , 4 8 , 5 °, 59 , 6 3 , 68 > 6 9 , 7 2 , 73 - 75 , 77 , 7 8 - 
Clinton, Sir Henry, 46, 47, 48. 

Clinton State Prison, history of, with view, 294-297. 


Coe, George S., portrait of, 570. 

Colden, Cadwallader D., 20, 22, 29, 446. 

Cole, Chester S., biography of, 423 ; portrait of, 424. 
Cole, Daniel H., 118. 

Commerce Insurance Company, 601. 

Commercial Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

Commercial Mutual Insurance Company, 615. 
Commercial Union Assurance Company, England, 602. 
Commonwealth The, history of, 1-138. 

Comptroller The, history of, 223-226. 

Comptroller, office of, created, 224. 

Comptrollers, list of, 226. 

Comstock, Peter, 288. 

Confiance Insurance Company, France, 602. 

Conkling, Roscoe, 237. 

Connecticut Fire Insurance Company, 602. 
Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, 610, 
611. 

Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, 604, 
610, 6n. 

Constitutional Convention of 1821, 79. 

Construction of a New Capitol approved, 106. 
Continental Congress, 35, 37, 39, 40, 42. 

Continental Insurance Company, 601; history of, with 
view, 622-624. 

Convention to revise the Constitution, 106. 

Cooper, G. Edward, 246. 

Cooper, Peter, 99, 481. 

Corbin, Austin, portrait of, 500, 541, 543. 

Cornell, Alonzo B., 1 ; biography of, with portrait, 
1 55 - i 6 3* l66 , i7 2 , 212, 313, 561. 

Cornell, Ezra, 155. 

Corning, Erastus, 484, 485, 487, 502, 503, 521, 547. 
Cowen, Esek, 485. 

Craig, Oscar, portrait of, 347, biography of, 348. 
Crooked Lake canal, 464. 

Crowell, Stephen, portrait of, 601, 624. 

Cruger, John, 27. 

Currency and Banking questions, 68. 

Custom House, New York City, view of, 408. 


D. 


Dav.-Del. ] 

Davenport, Ira, 223; biography of, with portrait, 228. 
Davies, Henry E., 384; portrait of, 386. 

Davis, William A., 456. 

Davison, Gilbert M., 486, 500. 

Deecke, Dr. Theodore, 355. 

Delamater, Cornelius H., 544. 

Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, 478, 479, 480, 
5 2 9 - 

Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Com¬ 
pany, 535 - 


[ Del.-Dev. 

Delevan, Edward C., 485. 

Dennison, Charles M., portrait of, 255 ; biography of, 
256. 

Dennison, James A., biography of, 240; portrait of, 246. 
Deputy Auditors-General of the Province of New York, 
list of, 226. 

Dering, Sylvester, biography of, with portrait, 208. 
Detroit Fire and Marine Insurance Company, Michi¬ 
gan, 602. 

Devereux, John C., biography of, with portrait, 347. 


[631 ] 






INDEX. 


[ Don.-Dwi. 


DeW.-Dod. J 


De Witt, Simeon, 444. 

Dickinson, Wells S., 297. 

Dickson Manufacturing Company, 480. 

Dickson, Thomas, portrait of, 49X, 538. 

Dillon, Sidney, 555. 

Dinsmore, William B., 514. 

Directors-General of the Province, list of, 152. 

Dix, Miss Dorothy L., 103, 310, 359. 

Dix, John A., 98, 101, no; portrait of, no, in, 114, 
117, 492. 

Dodge, William E., 101, 498. 


Donnelly, Edward C, biography of, with portrait, 341. 
Douw, Volckert P., 40, 485. 

Drew, Steamer, Grand Saloon, view of, 549. 

Driggs, Edmund, portrait of, 602. 

Duane, James, 34 
Duguid, Henry L., 561. 

Dunn, George W., biography of, with portrait, 374. 
Dutcher, Silas Belden, 249, biography of, with portrait, 
25 1 - 

Dwight, Theodore W., 239. 

Dwight, Timothy, 346. 


Eag.-Equ. ] 

Eagle Fire Company, 601. 

Easton, Charles P., portrait of, 175; biography of 176 
177, 297. 

Eddy, Thomas, 64, 279, 444, 446. 

Eells, Daniel P., 517. 

Eliot Insurance Company, Massachusetts, 602. 

Empire City Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

Englis, John, portrait of, 551. 

Equitable Fire and Marine Insurance Company, Rhode 
Island, 602. 

Equitable Life Assurance Society, 605, 610, 611. 


[ Eri.-Exe. 

Erie canal, history of, 64, 66, 96, locks at Lockport, 
view of, 435. 

Everett, Charles J., biography of, 239 ; portrait of, 246. 
Everett, Edward, 488. 

Everett, W. W., portrait of, 550. 

Exchange Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

Executive Chamber, view of, 154. 

Executive Drawing Room, view of, 138. 

Executive Mansion, view of, 138. 

Executive Residence, view of, 138, 152. 

Executive The, history of, 139-152. 


F. 

Fai.-Fir. ] 

Fairchild, Sidney T., 547. 

Fairman, Charles G., 265, portrait of, 268; biography 
of, 270, 607. 

Fall Brook Coal Company, 533. 

Fanning, James O., biography of, with portrait, 349. 
Fargo, James C., 516, 518; portrait of, 531. 

Fargo, William G., 516, 517. 

Farmers’ Insurance Company, Pennsylvania, 602. 
Farragut Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

Faulkner, James, Jr., 118. 

Featherstonhaugh, George W., 477. 

Fenton, Reuben E., 106; portrait of, 106, 114, 328. 

Field, Cyrus W., 99, 512. 

Field, Joseph, 221. 

Fillmore, Millard, portrait of, 93, 95, 583. 

Fire Association, Pennsylvania, 602. 

Fire Insurance Association, of London, 602. 

Fire Insurance Company, County of Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania, 602. 

Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company, California, 602. 
Fireman’s Trust Insurance Company, 601. 

Firemen’s Insurance Company, 601. 

Firemen’s Insurance Company, Maryland, 602. 
Firemen’s Insurance Company, New Jersey, 602 
Firemen’s Insurance Company, Ohio, 602. 


[ Fir.-Ful. 

First National Fire Insurance Company, Massachusetts, 
602. 

Fish, Hamilton, portrait of, 93, 95. 

Fitzgerald, Louis, biography of, with portrait, 204. 
Flagg, Azariah C., 500, 582. 

Fletcher, Benjamin, 15. 

Folger, Charles J., 45, note , 329. 

Ford, Henry W., portrait of, 571. 

Ford, William D., 447. 

Forrest, George J., 432, portrait of, 434. 

Foster, Edward W., biography of, 346; portrait 0^347. 
Foster, William, 120. 

Four track viaduct over Harlem Flats, New York City, 
view of, 547. 

Fowler, John S., biography of, with portrait, 277. 
Francis, Charles S., biography of, with portrait, 183,184. 
Francis, John M., 183. 

Franklin, Benjamin, 49, 441. 

Franklin and Emporium Fire Insurance Company, 601. 
Franklin Fire Insurance Company, Pennsylvania, 602. 
Franklin, Morris, portrait of, 604, 620. 

Fuller, Isaiah, 294, portrait of, 298; biography of, 299. 
Fulton, Levi S., 395, 397; portrait of, 398; biography of, 
399 - 

Fulton, Robert, 66, 247, 399, 445, 458. 

[632] 











Gal.-Gle. ] 


INDEX. 


[ Glo.-Gun. 


Gales, Thomas W., 498. 

Gallatine, Albert, 441. 

Gallaudet, Thomas H., 383. 

Gallien, Henry, biography of, 228; portrait of, 246. 
Geddes, James, 440, 442, 444, 449, 455. 

Geer, W. H. H., 347. 

General Assembly of New York, 35, 36. 

General Marine Insurance Company, Dresden, 615. 
Gibbon. Edward, 304. 

Gibson, Henry P., 521. 

General Railroad Act passed, 96. 

Genesee Valley canal, 464. 

Geological structure of New York, 61. 

German-American Insurance Company, 601. 

German Insurance Company, Pennsylvania, 602. 
Germania Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

Germania Insurance Company, New Jersey, 602. 
Germania Life Insurance Company, 606, 610, 611, 
612. 

Gilmour, Neil, 260; biography of, with portrait, 268. 
Girard Fire and Marine Insurance Company, Pennsyl¬ 
vania, 602. 

Glens Falls Insurance Company, 601. 


G. 

✓ 

Globe Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

Glover, James, 281. 

Gould, Jay, portrait of, 480, 555. 

Governors of the Colony, list of, 152, 153. 

Governors of the State, list of, 153. 

Grace, William R., 432; portrait of, 434. 

Grand Central Depot, New York city, view of, 475, 
548 , 549 - 

Granger, Francis, 85. 

Grant, E. B., 509. 

Grant, Ulysses S., 157. 

Graves, Ezra, 210. 

Graves, John, 210. 

Graves, John Card, portrait of, 208 ; biography of, 210. 
Gray, J. W., 269. 

Gray, John P., M.D., LL.D., 353, 355 ; biography 
of, with portrait, 357~35 8 » 3 6 4- 
Great Western Insurance Company, 615. 

Green, Norvin, portrait of, 520. 

Greenwich Insurance Company, 596, 601. 

Guardian Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

Guardian Fire and Life Assurance Company, 602. 
Gunther, C. Godfrey, portrait of, 512. 


H 

Had.-Hay. ] 

Hadley, Sterling G., biography of, with portrait, 361. 
Hadley, William, 476. 

Hale, Daniel, 279. 

Hallett, Benjamin F., 488. 

Halsted, James M., portrait of, 595. 

Hamburg-Bremen Fire Insurance Company, Germany, 
602. 

Hamilton, Adolphus, 509. 

Hamilton, Alexander, 52, 53, 68, 71. 

Hamilton Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

Hancock, James D., portrait of, 251; biography of, 252. 
Hanover Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

Hard, George M., portrait of, 572. 

Harnden, William F., 513. 

Harper, Fletcher, biography of, with portrait, 371. 
Harris, Elisha, 427. 

Harris, Ira, 487. 

Hart, Ephraim, 450. 

Hartford Convention, 51. 

Hartford Fire Insurance Company, Connecticut, 602. 
Hauselt, Carl, 432; portrait of, 434. 

Hawley, Gideon, 485. 

Hays, William H., portrait of, 552. 

Hayward, Loyd A., biography of, with portrait, 382. 

80 


[ Hep.-How. 

Hepburn, A. B., 263; portrait of. 268; biography of, 
269-270, 555. 

Hilton, Judge Henry, 175. 

Hilton, Miss Josephine, 175. 

Hoffman, John T., 107, 108; portrait of, 108, 109, 112. 
Holland, Alexander, 516; portrait of, 536. 

Holman, Lyman F., portrait of, 416. 

Home Insurance Company, 601. 

Home Life Insurance Company, 606, 610, 611. 
Homes, Henry A., LL.D., 211. 

Homes, Henry F., 593. 

Homoeopathic Asylum for the Insane, history of, with 
view, 368-370. 

Homoeopathic Life Insurance Company, 606, 610, 611. 
Hone, Philip, 478. 

Hope, George T., portrait of, 597, 622. 

Hopkins, A. L., 555. 

Hopkins, Samuel M., 282. 

Hoskins, George G., biography of, with oortrait. 164, 
165. 

Hospitals for the acute insane, 325. 

Howard Insurance Company, 601. 

Howe, Dr. S. G., 388. 

Howell, Nathaniel, 485. 

[633] 





Hoy.-Hud. ] 


INDEX. 


[ Hum.-Hut. 


Hoysradt, Jacob W., biography of, 178-179; portrait 
of, 180. 

Hoyt, Charles S., M.D., 228; biography of, with 
portrait. 349. 

Hubbard, Thomas H., 485. 

Hudson and Berkshire Railroad, 465. 

Hudson River Railroad, 500, 501, 509. 

Hudson River State Hospital, history of, with view, 
3 62 > 3 6 3 - 


Humphreys, Major-General, 220. 

Humphreys, Solon, 555. 

Hunt, Washington, 95; portrait of, 95, 388, 502, 583. 
Hurlbut, Henry A., biography of, with portrait, 433, 
434 - 

Husted, James W., 561. 

Hutchins, Stephen C., 45, note . 303, 475. 

Hutchinson, Governor, 33. 

Hutchinson, Holmes, 460. 


I. 

Imm.-Ins. ] 

Immigration, history of, 431-432. 

Imperial Fire Insurance Company, England, 602. 
Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, history of, with 
view, 383-385. 

Insurance, history of, 593-617. 

Insurance Company of North America, Pennsylvania, 
602. 


[ Ins.-Ith. 

Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania, 602. 
Insurance Department, organization of, 100; history of, 
265, 266. 

Iron Producing Industry, statistics of, 35. 

Irving Insurance Company, 601. 

Ithaca and Oswego railroad, 465. 


Jac.-Jew. ] 

Jackson, Andrew, 78, 83, 84, 85, 86. 

Jackson, Andrew H., 574, 577. 

Jackson, H. I., 432, portrait of, 434. 

Jacob, Samuel, 515. 

Jacobs, John C., 118. 

James, William, 485. 

Jay, John, 34, 35, 37, 38, 43, 45 ; portrait of, 45, 54, 
68, 69, 70, 71, 76, 77, 88. 

Jefferson Insurance Company, 601. 

Jefferson, Thomas, 71, 72, 73, 

Jervis, John B., 455, 460, 500, 508, 547. 

Jewett, Dr Harvey, 347. 

Jewett, Hugh J., portrait of, 484, 555. 


Kee.-Kin. ] 

Keeler, John C., biography of, 240; portrait of, 246. 
Kemp, William, portrait of, 574. 

Kernan, John D., portrait of, 557. 

Ketchum, L. S., 221. 

Keyes, Addison A., biography of, with portrait, 271. 
King, Elisha W., 456. 

King, James G., 497. 

King, John A., portrait of, 100, 105, 169. 


[ Jew.-Jud. 

Jewett, Sherman S., portrait of, 573. 

John Hancock Life Insurance Company, Massachu¬ 
setts, 606, 610, 611, 612. 

Johnson, Edwin F., 495, 496. 

Johnson, Robert L., 514. 

Johnson, Sir William, 20. 

Jones, Edward, 502. 

Jones, Frank L., 289, biography of, with portrait, 298. 
Jones, Israel C., biography of, with portrait, 394. 
Jones, John D., portrait of, 612, 626. 

Jourdan, James, biography of, with portrait, 198-200. 
Judd, David W., biography of, with portrait, 429- 
43 °- 


[ Kin.-Kni. 

King, Rufus, 54, 71, 75, 76, 77. 

Kings County Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

Kip, Henry, 517. 

Kip, Jacobus, 57. 

Knapp, John N., 518. 

Knapp, Shepherd, 384, 498. 

Knickerbocker Fire Insurance Company, 601. 


t 6 34 ] 







Laf.-Lit. ] 


INDEX. 


[ Lit.-Lyn. 


Lafayette Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

Lake Underwriters’ Asssociation, formation of, 613. 
Lancashire Insurance Company, England, 602. 

Lancey, Chief Justice, 18, 21. 

Langdon, Charles J., biography of, 179; portrait of, 
180. 

Lansing, Gerritt Y., 525. 

Lansing, John, Jr-, 73. 

Lawrence, Abbott, 488. 

Lawrence, W. B., 497. 

Leavenworth, Elias W., 491. 

Leavenworth, John, 271. 

Lee, General Charles, 41. 

Lee, M. Lindley, 311. 

Lee, Oliver H., 547. 

Lee, Richard Henry, 35. 

Letchworth, William P., biography of, with portrait, 
335 - 339 - 

Leupp, Charles M., 498. 

Lewis, Morgan, portrait of, 45, 67, 71, 73, 74. 
Lieutenant-Governors, list of, 154. 

Life Insurance, history of, 602-612. 

Lincoln, Abraham, 101, 105. 

Lion, The Locomotive, view of, 479. 

Lion Fire Insurance Company, England, 602. 
Lispenard, Leonard, 27, 28. 

Little, Russell M., portrait of, 598 


McC.-Man. ] 

McCall, John A., Jr., portrait of, 271; biography of, 
272. 

Macdonald, Carlos F., M.D., 300, biography of, 302 ; 
portrait of, 351. 

McDougall, Captain Alexander, 32, 34, 51. 

McEwan, John S., biography of, with portrait, 185. 
McIntosh, Ezekiel C., 521. 

McIntyre, Archibald, 465. 

McKaye, Colonel J. L., 516. 

McKown, James, 482. 

McLean, James M., portrait of, 596. 

Macy, William H., portrait of, 575. 

Madison, James, 73, 74, 75, 78, 572. 

Magone, Daniel, Jr., 118. 

Makemie, Rev. Francis, 16. 

Manhattan Life Insurance Company, 604, 610, 611. 
Mann, Francis N., Jr., biography of, with portrait, 
183. 

Manning, Daniel, 563 ; portrait of, 576. 

Manorial system, introduction of the, 3. 


Littlejohn, De Witt C., 527. 

Liverpool and London and Globe Insurance Company, 
602. 

Livingston, Johnson, 516. 

Livingston, Philip, 31, 35, 134. 

Livingston, Robert R., 27, 51, 52, 53, 247, 445. 
Livingston, William, 22. 

Livingston, William A., 515, 516. 

Loder, Benjamin, 498. 

London and Lancashire Fire Insurance Company, 
England, 602. 

London and Provincial Insurance Company, England, 
602. 

London Assurance Corporation, England, 602. 

Long Island Insurance Company, 601. 

Long Island Railroad Company, 495, 543. 

Lord, Asa D., M.D., 380. 

Lord, Eleazer, 497. 

Lord, Mrs. Elizabeth W., 380. 

Lord, T. Ellery, biography of, 207 ; portrait of, 208. 
Lorillard Insurance Company, 601. 

Low, Isaac, 34. 

Low, James, 561. 

Low, Seth, 181. 

Lowell, Josephine Shaw, biography of, 343; portrait 
of, 344 - 

Lynch, James, 432, portrait of, 434. 


[ Man.-Mec. 

Manufacturers’ and Builders’ Fire Insurance Com¬ 
pany, 601. 

Manufacturers’ Fire and Marine Insurance Company, 
Massachusetts, 602. 

Marcy, William L., 83, 85, 86 ; portrait of, 86, 87, 88, 
314, 325, 497, 502. 

Marine Insurance, history of, 612-615. 

Marsh, Nathaniel, 498. 

Marsh, Samuel, 498. 

Martin, Henry, portrait of, 578. 

Martin, Henry H., 521, 547; portrait of, 577. 

Mason, Joel W., 432 ; portrait of, 434. 

Massachusetts General Hospital Life Insurance Com¬ 
pany, 603. 

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, 610, 
611. 

Maxwell, Robert A., 229 ; biography of, with portrait, 
232 - 

Maxwell, William, 498. 

Mechanics’ Fire Insurance Company, 601. 


[635] 





Mec.-Mon. ] 


INDEX. 


[ Mon.-Mut. 


Mechanics’ Insurance Company, Pennsylvania, 602. 
Mechanics’ and Traders’ Fire Insurance Company, 601. 
Mercantile Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

Mercantile Insurance Company, Ohio, 602. 

Mercantile Marine Insurance Company, Massachusetts, 
602. 

Merchants’ Insurance Company, New Jersey, 602. 
Merchants’ Insurance Company, New York, 601. 
Merchants’ Insurance Company, Rhode Island, 602. 
Metropole Insurance Company, France, 602. 
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, 606, 610, 611, 
612. 

Michigan Central and Michigan Southern Railroads,5 20. 
Michigan Insurance Company, 602. 

Milhau, John J., M.D., portrait of, 341; biography of, 
342 . 

Militia The, history of, 187-194. 

Miller, Edmund H., 547. 

Miller, Samuel F., portrait of, 347; biography of, 348. 
Miller, Warner, 120. 

Monroe, James, 76, 78. 

Montauk Fire Insurance Company, 601. 


Nas.-New. ] 

Nassau Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

National Express Company, 516. 

National Fire Insurance Company, Connecticut, 602. 
National Fire Insurance Company, New York, 601. 
National Life Insurance Company, Vermont, 610, 61 r. 
Neptune Fire and Marine Insurance Company, Massa¬ 
chusetts, 602. 

Newark Fire Insurance Company, New Jersey, 602. 
New England Mutual Life Insurance Company, 603, 
610, 611. 

New Hampshire Fire Insurance Company, 602. 

New Orleans Insurance Company, Louisiana, 602. 
New York and Erie railroad, 465, 497, 498, 501. 

New York and New Haven Railway completed, 500. 
New York Asylum for Idiots, history of, with view, 

387-389- 

New York Bowery Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Com¬ 
pany, 519, 521, 548, 549, 550. 

New York Deposit Law, passage of, 604. 

New York Elevated Railway Company, 543, 544. 

New York Equitable Fire Insurance Company, 601. 
New York Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

New York House of Refuge, 315; history of, with 
view, 391-393. 

New York Institution for the Blind, history of, with 

view, 375, 376. 

New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company, 
53 r > 555 . 55 6 - 

[6: 


Montgomery, Richard, 39. 

Morgan, Edwin B., 517. 

Morgan, Edwin D., 101, 105; portrait of, 105, 169, 555. 
Morgan, R. P., 500. 

Morgan, William J., 253; biography of, with portrait, 
255 - 

Morris, Daniel, 349. 

Morris, Gouverneur, 247, 439, 444. 

Morris, Lewis, 17. 

Morse, Samuel F. B., 99. 

Mott, John T., portrait of, 183; biography of, 184. 
Mott, Jordan L., 544. 

Mott, Thomas S., portrait of, 579. 

Munger, Dr. E. A., 372. 

Munroe, Allen, biography of, with portrait, 389, 390. 
Munson, Isaac, portrait of, 594. 

Murray, David, 67, note. 

Murray, John, 279. 

Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company, 595, 604, 
610, 611. 

Mutual Life Insurance Company, 594, 595, 603, 604, 
610, 611 ; history of, with view, 618-6x9. 


[ New.-Noy. 

New York Life and Trust Company, 603. 

New York Life Insurance Company, view of, 593, 604, 
610, 611 ; history of, with view, 620 — 622. 

New York Mutual Insurance Company, 615. 

New York Produce Exchange, view of, 413. 

New York State Lunatic Asylum, history of, with 
view, 352-356. 

New York State Reformatory, history of, with view, 
400, 401. 

New York Tribune, 158, 549. 

New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railroad Company, 

529- 

Niagara Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

Nichols, John A., portrait of, 429; biography of, 430. 
Nicks, John I., biography of, with portrait, 402. 
Normal schools established, 106. 

North American Insurance Company, Massachusetts, 
602. 

North British and Mercantile Insurance Company, 602. 
North German Fire Insurance Company, Germany,602. 
North River Insurance Company, 596, 601. 
North-Western Mutual Life Insurance Company, Wis¬ 
consin, 605, 610, 611. 

North-Western National Insurance Company, Wiscon 
sin, 602. 

Northern Assurance Company, England, 602. 

Norwich Union Fire Insurance Society, England, 602. 
Notrnan, Peter, portrait of, 600. 

Noyes, William L., 561. 

] 













Oce.-One. ] 


INDEX. 


[ Ord.-Oti. 


O. 


Ocean steamship companies, incorporation of, 93. 
O’Donnell, John, portrait of, 561. 

Olcott, Thomas W., 487, 500. 

Oliver, Robert Shaw, biography of, with portrait, 171— 
172. 

Olmstead, H. M., 509. 

Olmsted, Frederick Law, 364. 

Oneida Lake canal, 464. 

Oneida River improvement, 464. 


Pac.-Pla. ] 

Pacific Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

Paige, Alonzo C-, 521, 575. 

Palmer, Francis A., portrait of, 580. 

Parish, Henry, portrait of, 581. 

Park Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

Parker, Amasa J., Jr., 363, note j portrait of, 363. 
Parkhurst, John, 296. 

Peet, Harvey P., 384. 

Peet, Isaac Lewis, LL.D., 383, 384; biography of, with 
portrait, 386. 

Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, 604, 610, 611. 
Pennsylvania Fire Insurance Company, 602. 
Pennsylvania Insurance Company, 602. 

People’s Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

Peter Cooper Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

Phelps, John J., 498 

Phenix Insurance Company, 601; history of, 624-626. 
Phillips, Daniel, 514. 

Phisterer, Frederick, portrait of, 185; biography of, 
186. 

Phoenix Assurance Company, England, 602. 

Phoenix Insurance Company, Connecticut, 602. 
Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company, Connecticut, 
605, 610, 6x1. 

Pierce, Franklin, 98. 

Pierrepont, Rev. James, 346. 

Pilsbury, Amos, 287. 

Pilsbury, Louis D., 279, 285 ; biography of, 287 ; por¬ 
trait of, 288, 290, 296. 

Pilsbury, Moses C., 287. 

Pitcher, Thomas Gamble, biography of, 407, portrait 
of, 404. 

Pitt, William, 29. 

Place, John A., biography of, 267; portrait of, 268. 


Ordronaux, John, M.D., biography of, with portrait, 

35 1 - 

Orient Insurance Company, Connecticut. 602. 

Orient Mutual Insurance Company, 615. 

Orr, Alexander E., 118. 

Osborn, Sir Danvers, 21. 

Oswego canal, 464. 

Otis, James, 28. 


[ Pla.-Pul. 

Platt, Jonas, 74, 444, 446. 

Platt, Thomas C., 429, 517. 

Polk, James K., 90. 

Pomeroy, George E., 516. 

Pomeroy, Theodore M., 518. 

Poor’s Manual of Railroads, 475, note, 562. 

Port of New York The, history of, 408-423. 

Porter, James, 487. 

Porter, Peter B., 444. 

Porter, William, M.D., 384; biography of, with por¬ 
trait, 386. 

Post, Thomas, portrait of, 553. 

Powers, D. W., portrait of, 582. 

Pratt, Daniel J., 67, note ; 260, note. 

Pratt, Zadock, 500. 

Prentice, Ezra P., 487, 526. 

Prentice, J., 487. 

Prescott Insurance Company, Massachusetts, 602. 
Presidents of the Congresses, list of, 153. 
Providence-Washington Insurance Company, Rhode 
Island, 602. 

Provident Life and Trust Insurance Company, Penn¬ 
sylvania, 610, 611. 

Provident Savings Life Assurance Society, 610, 611. 
Provincial Congress, 42. 

Provincial Convention, 37. 

Prudential Insurance Company, New Jersey, 610, 
611, 612. 

Pruyn, John V. L., 328, 329, 339, 502, 509, 521, 547. 
Pruyn, Robert H., no, 502, 525. 

Public Charities, history of, 303-334; State Board of, 
organized, 106; State Commissioners of, list of, 334. 
Public Instruction, history of, 260-262. 

Pullen, Major J. A., 515. 


[ 637 ] 








Qua.-Roc. ] 


INDEX. 


[ Roc.-Rut. 


Or 

Quarantine, history of, 425-428. 

Queen Insurance Company, England, 602. 

Quinby, Isaac F., 101 ; biography of, 406 ; portrait of, 
404 - 

Railroad Commissioners, board of, 99, 561, 562. 
Railroad Map of the State of New York, 545. 

Railroads and Transportation, history of, 475-562. 
Redfield, W. C., 496. 

Registry Policy Act, provisions of, 608. 

Revere, Paul, 34. 

Reynolds, Marcus T., 487. 

Reynolds, Mortimer F., portrait of, 583. 

Richardson, Judge, 449. 

Richmond, Dean, 521, 547. 

Ricketts, General J. B., 222. 

Rittenhouse, David, LL. D., 441. 

Roberts, Marshall 0 -, 99, 498. 

Robertson, William H., 45, note. 

Robinson, Lucius, 120, 121 . portrait of, 120. 

Robie, Jonathan, biography of, 407 ; portrait of, 404. 
Rochester and Syracuse Railroad, 505. 

Rochester German Insurance Company, 60 x 


Sag.-Sec. J 

Sage, Russell, 521. 

Sage, William N., biography of, with portrait, 398. 

St. John, Daniel B., 581. 

St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company, Minne¬ 
sota, 602. 

Salt Springs of Onondaga, 67. 

Sanders, Robert, 477. 

Sands, Comfort, 223. 

Saratoga and Washington Railroad, 505. 

Savage, Edmund, biography of, with portrait, 271. 
Schell, Augustus, biography of, with portrait, 376, 377, 
548, 550. 

Schuyler, Peter, 12, 15, 16, 17. 

Schuyler, Philip, 12, 20, 30, 31, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 
45. 54, 64, 71, 77, 279, 435, 436, 438. 

Schuyler, Philip Pietersen, 7. 

Scott, John Morin, 22. 

Scottish Union and National Insurance Company 
Scotland, 602. 

Sea Insurance Company, England, 615. 

Seaman, William, 477. 

Sears, Isaac, 37. 

Secretaries of the Province, list of, 218. 

Secretaries of State, list of, 218. 

Secretary of State The, history of, 215-218. 


R. 

Rochester, William B., 485. 

Roe, S. J., portrait of, 553. 

Rogers, Publius V., portrait of, 584. 

Rogers, William E., portrait of, 558. 

Rogers, William Findlay, portrait of, 198; biography 
of, 201-202. 

Rolston, R. G., portrait of, 585. 

Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Railroad System, 
536 - 

Root, Erastus, 80, 525, 527. 

Root, Francis H., biography of, with portrait, 366. 
Ropes, Ripley, biography of, with portrait, 344 
Ross, Elmore P., 518. 

Royal Insurance Company, England, 602 
Ruggles, Samuel B., 497, 527. 

Ruggles, William B., biography of, 239 ; portrait of, 
246. 

Russ, Dr. John D., 375. 

Russell, Horace, biography of, with portrait, 175. 
Russell, John Leslie, 238. 

Russell, Leslie W., 234; biography of, with portrait, 
238. 

Rutgers Fire Insurance Company, 601. 


s. 


[ Sec.-Ski. 

Security Insurance Company, Connecticut, 602. 
Seguin, M., 477. 

Seligman, Joseph, 544. 

Seward, Frederick W., 105, 118. 

Seward, William H., 81; portrait of, 86, 87, 88, 89, 92, 

93 - 97 , 105, 335 , 49 2 > 5*8. 

Seymour, Henry, 450, 454. 

Seymour, Horatio, 89, 90, 92, 96 ; portrait of, 96, 97, 
98, 105, 222, 243 ; autograph letter from, 474, 526. 
Seymour, Horatio, Jr., 67, 7iote , 435 ; biography of, with 
portrait, 243. 

Seymour, John F., 243. 

Seymour, Silas, 241; biography of, with portrait, 244- 
246, 509, 531. 

Shaler, Alexander, biography of, 195-197 ; portrait of, 
198. 

Sharpe, George H., 44, note. 

Sheldon, Henry, 498. 

Sherman, Richard U., 118. 

Shoe and Leather Insurance Company, Massachusetts, 
602. 

Sill, Theodore, 477. 

Sing Sing State Prison, history of, with view, 292-294. 
Skidmore, William B., 498. 

Skinner. St. Tohn B.. 20?. 


[638] 









Slo.-Sta. ] 


INDEX. 


[ Sta.-Syr. 


Sloan, George B., 537. 

Sloan, Samuel, 101; portrait of, 494, 535, 536, 537. 

547 - 

Slocum, Henry Wadsworth, 102. 

Slocum, Henry Warner, biography of, with portrait, 
404-405. 

Smalley, Edward Delavan, biography of, with por¬ 
trait, 246. 

Smith, Cornelius, 498. 

Smith, Ezra. 449. 

Smith, Israel, 485. 

Smith, Lewis, 351. 

Smith, Stephen, M.D., 340; portrait of, 341 ; biogra¬ 
phy of, 351. 

Smith, William, 15, 18. 

Smith, William (historian), 22. 

Smith, William H., portrait of, 586. 

Smith, Wm. M., M.D., biography of, with portrait, 
424 - 

Snow, Ambrose, portrait of, 421. 

Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home, history of, with view, 403- 
404. 

Spaulding, E. G., portrait of, 587. 

Spencer, Ambrose, 72, 74. 

Spencer, John C., 502. 

Spencer, Mark, 311. 

Spooner, Clapp, 514. 

Springfield Fire and Marine Insurance Company, 
Massachusetts, 602. 

Staff of the Commander-in-Chief, history of, 167-168. 
Standard Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

Standard Fire Office, England, 602. 

Stanford, Leland, 555. 

Stannard, General George H., 199. 

Star Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

Starr, George, 432, portrait of, 434. 

State Asylum for Insane Criminals, history of, 300-301. 
State Canvassers, board of, 124. 

State Commissioner in Lunacy, 350. 

State Commissioners of Public Charities, list of, 334. 
State Engineer and Surveyor, history of, 241, 242. 
State Engineers and Surveyors, list of, 242. 

State House, view of, 2 15. 


State Institution for the Blind, history of, with view, 
378-381. 

State Mutual Life Insurance Company, Massachusetts, 
604, 610, 611. 

State Prisons, history of, 279-286. 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction, office of, 
established, 225. 

Stephenson, George, 476. 

Stephenson, Robert, 476. 

Sterling Fire Insurance Company, 6or. 

Stevens, Samuel, 493. 

Stewart, Alexander T., iox. 

Stewart, William R., biography of, 340; portrait of, 341. 
Stimson’s Express History, 475, note. 

Stoncliff, L. J., 509. 

Stone, E. Lamb, 514. 

Stone, William L., 451, 453. 

Stonehouse, John B., portrait of, 1S5 ; biography of, 
186. 

Stoutenburgh, Isaac, 279. 

Stryker, James, 485, 486. 

Stuyvesant Insurance Company, 601. 

Stuyvesant, P. G., 497. 

Stuyvesant, Peter, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 
Sun Fire Office, England, 602. 

Sun Mutual Insurance Company, 615. 

Superintendents of Common Schools, list of, 262. 
Superintendent of Public Works, office of, created, 249 ; 
history of, 249-250. 

Superintendents of Public Instruction, list of, 262. 
Superintendent of the Banking Department, office of, 
established, 225. 

Superintendent of the Insurance Department, office of, 
established, 225. 

Surveyors-General, list of, 242. 

Swartwout, John, 446. 

Sweet, Charles A., portrait of, 588. 

Swift, M’Cree, 510. 

Swift, William H., 547. 

Swiss Lloyd Transport Insurance Company, Germany, 
615. 

Switzerland Marine Insurance Company, 615 
Syracuse and Utica Railroad, 505. 


T 

Tai.-Ten. ] 

Taintor, Charles N., 432, portrait of, 434. 

Talcott, Selden H., M.D., 368; biography of, with por¬ 
trait, 371, 372. 

Taylor, Moses, 99, 101, 537. 

Telegraph companies, incorporation of, 93. 

Ten Broeck, Colonel, 35. 

Ten Broeck, Abraham, 247, 435. 


T Ter.-Thr. 

Terry, George L., 561. 

Texas and Pacific Railway, 555. 

Thames and Mersey Marine Insurance Company, 615. 
Thompson, James M., 514. 

Thomson, William A., portrait of, 589. 

Throop, Enos T., portrait of, 68, 83, 84, 313, 324, 482, 

573 . 575 - 


[ 639 ] 





Thu.-Tow. ] 


INDEX. 


[ Tow.-Tro. 


Thurston, James S., portrait of, 271; biography of, 

272. 

Tibbitts, George, 282. 

Tilden, Samuel J., 117; portrait of, 117, 118. 
Tompkins, Daniel D., portrait of, 45, 67, 68, 74, 75, 
76, 77, 78, 142, 447. 

Tompkins, Edward, 525. 

Tonawanda Railroad, 465, 505. 

Townsend, Franklin, 121. 

Townsend, Frederick, biography of, with portrait, 169- 
170, 187. 


Ulr.-Uni. ] 

Ulrich, Charles F., 432 ; portrait of, 434. 

Union Central Life Insurance Company, Ohio, 610, 611. 
Union Defense Committee, organized, 101. 

Union Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

Union Insurance Company, California, 602. 

Union Insurance Company, Pennsylvania, 602. 

Union Marine Insurance Company, England, 615. 
Union Mutual Insurance Company, chartered, 613. 
Union Mutual Life Insurance Company, Maine, 604, 
610, 611. 

Union Pacific Railroad, 554. 


Townsend, Isaiah, 485, 487. 

Townsend, John, 487, 491, 498, 525. 

Traders’ Insurance Company, Illinois, 602. 
Transatlantic Fire Insurance Company, Germany, 602. 
Travelers’ Life Insurance Company, Connecticut, 606, 
610, 611. 

Treasurer The, history of, 229-230. 

Treasurers, State, list of, 230. 

Trevithick, Richard, 476. 

Troy and Schenectady Railroad, 465, 505. 

Troy Times, 183. 


[ Uni.-Uti. 

United Bank Building, New York, view of, 563. 
United Firemen’s Insurance Company, Pennsylvania, 
602. 

United Fire Re-insurance, England, 602. 

United States Christian Commission, organization of, 
103. 

United States Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

United States Life Insurance Company, 604, 610, 
611. 

Utica and Schenectady Railroad, 505. 


V. 

Van.-Van. ] 

Van Antwerp, John H., portrait of, 344; biography 

of. 345- 

Van Buren, John D., Jr., 118. 

Van Buren, Martin, portrait of, 68, 69, 75, 76, 77, 79, 

83, 85, 489, 573, 574. 

Van Cott, Joshua, 276. 

Van Dam, Rip, 17, 18. 

Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 103, 547, 548. 

Vanderbilt, William H., portrait of, 476, 548, 550. 

Van Rensselaer, General J. Rutsen, 447. 

Van Rensselaer, Jean Baptiste, 7. 

Van Rensselaer, Jeremias, n. 

Van Rensselaer, Jeremiah, 279. 


[ Van.-Vir. 

Van Rensselaer, Johan, 7. 

Van Rensselaer, Kilian, 6. 

Van Rensselaer, Robert, 48. 

Van Rensselaer, Stephen, 76, 247, 249, 444, 447, 481. 
Van Rensselaer, William V., portrait of, 251 ; biogra¬ 
phy of, 252. 

Van Santvoord, Alfred, portrait of, 555. 

Van Vechten, Teunis, 487, 492. 

Van Veghten, Teunis Ts., 279. 

Varnum, James M., portrait of, 180; biography of, 182. 
Vedder, C. P., portrait of, 277; biography of, 278. 
Virgil, E. H., 515. 

Virginia House of Burgesses, 31. 



Wab.-Wal. ] 

Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway, 555. 
Wadsworth, James, 227. 

Wadsworth, James S., xoi, 227. 

Wadsworth, James W., 212; biography of, with portrait, 
227,561. 

Wait, William B., 375 ; portrait of, 376; biography of, 

377- 

Walcott, Benj. S., portrait of, 599. 


[ Wal.-Was. 

Walford, Cornelius, 595. 

Walker, Amasa, 488. 

Ward, Hamilton, biography of, with portrait, 237. 
Ward, William Greene, biography of, 203 ; portrait of, 
204. 

Washington Fire and Marine Insurance Company, 
Connecticut, 602. 

Washington, George, 39, 41, 43, 48, 69, 71. 


[640] 









Was.-Whi. J 


INDEX. 


[Wil.-Wyl. 


Washington Life Insurance Company, 606,610,611. 
Wasson, James D., 502, 517. 

Watertown and Rome Railroad, 504. 

Watkins, Sir Edward William, 555. 

Watson, Elkanah, 64, 436. 

Watson, Henry M., biography of, 182 ; portrait of, 183. 
Watson, William H., portrait of, 175 ; biography of, 
176. 

Watts, John, 279. 

Weatherwax, James H., biography of, with portrait, 
277. 

Webster, Hosea, portrait of, 590. 

Weed, Thurlow, 84, 431. 

Weekes, John A., biography of, with portrait, 394. 
Welch, J. Lowber, 555. 

Wells, David A., 276, 555. 

Wells, Henry, 516. 

Wells, Wells S., 297. 

Wendell, Jacob, 231. 

Wendell, John L., 485. 

Wendell, Nathan D., biography of, with portrait, 231. 
Westchester Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

Western Assurance Company, Canada, 602. 

Western House of Refuge, 315; history of, with view, 
395 - 397 - 

Western Pacific Railroad, 554. 

Western Union Telegraph Company, 512, 513. 
Wheeler, Melancthon, 449. 

Wheeler, William A., 107. 

White, Canvass, 455. 

White, Horace, 521. 

White, Norman, 498. 

Whitney, Asa, 509. 


Wilbor, Albert D.,D. D., 378; biography'of, with por¬ 
trait, 382. 

Wilbur, H. 13 ., M.D., 388; portrait of, 389; biography 
of, 390. 

Wilkinson, John, 491, 503, 521. 

Willard Asylum for the Insane, history of, with view, 
359 , 3 6 °- 

Williams, George G., portrait of, 591. 

| Williams, Henry, 488. 

Williamsburgh City Fire Insurance Company, 601. 

| Winchester, L. W., 516. 

Winslow, John C., 273. 

Winslow, John F., 541. 

Winston, F. S., portrait of, 603, 618. 

Winthrop, Governor, n. 

Winthrop, Benjamin R., 384. 

Wirt, Willian/, 86. 

■Wolcott, Oliver, 40. 

Women’s Central Association, organization of, 103. 
Wood, Anson S., biography of, 221-222; portrait of 
246. 

Wood, Daniel P., 329; portrait 0^592. 

Wood, Samuel, 375. 

Wood, Theodore F., 517. 

Wool, Major-General John E., 101, 500. 

Woolsey, Theodore, 346. 

Worcester, Edwin D., 548, 550. 

Wright, Benjamin, 449, 455, 497. 

Wright, Benjamin H., 450. 

Wright, Elizur, 605. 

Wright, Silas, portrait of, 86, 93, 94, 97. 

Wurtz, William, 477. 

Wylie, Daniel D., portrait of, 171; biography of, 172. 


Y. 

Yat.-You. ] 

Yates, Joseph C., portrait of, 68, 75, 79, 80. 

Yates, Robert, 70, 72. 

Young, Colonel, 449. 


Young, John, portrait of, 86, 91, 95. 
Young, Samuel, 79, 82, 571. 

Young, William C., 486, 502. 


[You. 




















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